PM Transcripts

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FOR PRESS: P. M. No. 113/ 1966
BARBADOS INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS
Statement by the Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Holt
The Prime Minister, Mr. Holt, announced today that Sir
Keith Wilson would represent the Australian Government on the occasion
of the independence of Barbados.
Barbados, which has been a British Colony since the
seventeenth century, Will achieve irid~ pendence on 30th November.
Celebrations to mark the event will be held in the capital, BridgetoWft,
between 28th November and 3rd December.
Barbados has expressed a wish to become a membe r of the
Commonwealth, and Australia, along with other Commonwealth nations,
has agreed to welcome it into the Commonwealth association and to
sponsor its application for membership of the United Nations. Barbados
S will become the 26th member of the Commonwealth.
Mr. Holt said that Sir Keith Wilson would carry with him
a congratulatory message conveying the very warm wishes of the
Government and people of Australia. Sir Keith would present the
Government of Barbados with an Australian landscape and library of
Australian books, and the Barbados Legislature with a desk set from the
Australian Parliament. Sir Keith V~ llson is a distinguished former member of the
Australian Parliament. He was elected to the Senate in 1937 and, after
serving in the Middle East theatre in the AIF, was elected in 1949 to the
House of Representatives as the Member for Sturt, which he has
represented continuously since 1955. Sir Keith was a member of the
Australian delegation to the United Nations in 1964.
CANBERRA. 21st November, 1966.