COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SPEECH 13Y
The Rt Hon. J. G. GORTON, M.
ON
CZECHOSLOVAKIA Ministerial Statement
[ From the ' Parliamentary Debates', 22 August 19681
Mr G40RTON ( Higgins-Prime Minister)
[ 8.01--Mr Speaker, the House is
debating a motion proposed on behalf of
, the Government by the Minister for
kernal Affairs ( Mr Hasluck). The
-tnotion is:
That the House expresses its distress at and its
abhorrence of the armed intervention in Czechoslovaldia
by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
the East German regime, Poland, Hungary, and
Cilgaria; condemns this action as a breach of the
. ue Nations Charter and of accepted international
conduct; calls for the immediate withdrawal
of the forces unlawfully on Czechoslovakian
territory and expresses the sympathy of
the House for the people of Czechoslovakia in
their ordeal.
It may -be thought, Mr Speaker, that a
parliamentary motion of support for the
Czechs and a condemnation of the invaders
in this place is a frail weapon, at least in
the short term, to set against the tanks and
the tommy guns of the Russian invaders;
but it is a weapon available to us and, in
the long term, in this and other parliaments
C may not be as frail as it at first might
appear. At least it is a weapon which the
Czechoslovakian mission to the United
Nations, at the behest of the Czechoslovakian
National Assembly, asked us to
C'-se, saying:
We appeal to parliaments of all countries and
to the world public opinion and ask them to support
our legitimate requirements.
Tonight, Sir, this Parliament has its chance
to respond to that appeal. The history of
21419/ 68 this sad affair is this: On 5th January this
year Mr Novotny, First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, a
Stalin -type, hard line Communist, was
replaced as First Secretary by Mr Alexander
Dubeek. The Communist Party and the Government
of Czechoslovakia began reforms
of the existing political and economic system
in Czechoslovakia. One of their objectives
was to improve the material well-being of
the Czechs by diverting to consumer goods
those resources which had been almost
entirely used for the development of heavy
industry and of defence -to such an extent
that all that was left for the Czechoslovakian
people ' to live on were the base
necessities of life.
The second objective was to infuse some
elements of democracy into the previous
tyrannous, totalitarian Communist system of
government which ' had prevailed in
Czechoslovakia, and so freedom of
speech was permitted, censorship of
the Press, of radio and of television
was abolished. Real discussions began in
the national parliament. The courts were
instructed to administer the law in accordance
with the rule of law. The activities
of the secret police were curbed and the
free practice of religion was permitted. At
the same time the Communist Party, under
Mr Dubcek, remained in control of the
country. The Czech Government reaffirmed
its ' immutable friendship and alliance with
the Soviet Union'. Czech forces remained
committed to the Warsaw Pact and the
military alliance between Russia, Czechoslovakia
and the other Warsaw Pact members
remained as firm as ever. So, Mr
Speaker, there was no abandonment of
military union; there was no abandonment
of Communist ideology. There was merely a
brave experiment, seeking to give material
benefit and seeking to give the right to
think and speak openly and freely to Czechs.
It was sought not to get rid of Communism
but to keep Communism and have a measure
of freedom too.
This brief endeavour was soon to be
crushed. Russia and the Communist regimes
in eastern Europe, who depend for their
existence on Soviet military power, could
not stomach the revival of free speech and
the revival of the rule of law. So at once
a hostile Press campaign against the Czech
Government began. In June of this year
infantry and tank divisions ringed the
frontiers of Czechoslovakia on the north,
on the east and on the south. In July tension
between Czechoslovakia and Russia began
to run high but it appeared to have
abated following a series of meetings
between Czech and Soviet leaders, ending
at Bratislava on 3rd August-the third of
this month-1968. After that meeting, in
the communique issued at its end, the
Czechs pledged their commitment to the
Soviet Union, to the Warsaw Pact and to
Communism, and in return the five other
countries taking part in that conference expressed
their ' firm intention to do everything
necessary to extend all round cooperation
on the basis of the principle of
equality, respect for sovereignty, independence
and territorial integrity'. That was in
the communique issued by Russia and the
other Warsaw powers on 3rd August-this
month. But in spite of that Soviet troops
remained on the border and yesterday at
approximately 8 o'clock in the morning
Canberra time, which was night time in
Czechoslovakia, Soviet and satellite troops
launched an invasion over all the frontiers
of Czechoslovakia in overwhelming strength
while the Czech citizens slept. It is worth
noting at this point, as was said at the
Security Council meeting today, that that
invasion so launched by Communist countries
had obviously taken weeks of preparation.
Millions of leaflets were dropped on Czechoslovakia; massive forces had been
deployed; a dummy radio station and newspaper
had already been set up. This surely
indicates that the Soviet leaders, who
embraced the Czechs at Cierna and Bratislava
and who had issued the communique
I have just quoted to the House, had already
been planning all this invasion at a time
when the public air was filled with smiles.
This must be taken to be a gross act of
perfidy that should be universally condemned
by world opinion.
By morning on the day of the invasion
the country was under military occupation.
Airborne troops had taken over Prague.
Four to five hundred tanks ringed Prague,
and the other centres of population were
under military control. The glimmer of
freedom which had begun to be seen in
Czechoslovakia had gone, at least for now.
The experiment was over, because that
measure of criticism, that measure of free
expression of opinion, that permission of
argument which the Czechs had sought to
introduce into the Communist body corporate
had been judged too dangerous, too
poisonous for that body to imbibe and ttolerate
and to live with. The invade.
believed it impossible for a Communist
government to survive with the consent of
or even subject to any public criticism from
the governed of a Communist countrysurely
in itself, Mr Speaker, an eloquecommentary
on the Communist system J
seen from within.
As the Russian tanks rolled over the
border to occupy the main centres of the
country, as airborne troops dropped
throughout Czechoslovakia, reports came
over the Prague Government Radio. Those
reports announced the invasion, announced
that it was happening without the knowledge
of the President of the Republic,
the Chairman of the National Assembly,
the Premier or the First Secretary of the
Communist Party Central Committee-
Indeed, the Central Committee of tl
Czech Communist Party met and asked for
calm in the population. They sought a
lack of resistance to the marching troops,
for the odds were too great and they did
not wish a repetition of the blood bath r
Hungary. On the next day, 21st August, the
Czech Embassy in London issued a statement
from the Central Committee of the
Czech Communist Party which said:
The invasion of Czechoslovakia and the armed
intervention by five states of the Warsaw Treaty
were made against the will of the Government,
against the will of the President of the National
Assembly and other constitutional organs.
No legal organ of the state power in
Czechoslovakia had given consent to it or
had requested it. Then came statements
from the Czech mission to the United
Nations, issued by the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, transmitting a resolute protest at
the Russian action and demanding the withdrawal
of all armed troops forthwith. Mr
Speaker, the troops remain. The whereabouts
of Czech Government leaders are
unknown. Whether or not they are safe.
whether or not they live, is unknown.
Faced with the need to justify an action
which the world had hoped it would never
see again, a repetition in the same unhalpy
country of that aggression which Hitler
committed in 1938, the Soviet Union now
seeks to pretend that its troops were
invited into Czechoslovakia. It has issued.
through Tass, a long statement which purports
to be the text of an appeal by a group
of members, unnamed, of the Cen-tral Comttee
of the Communist Party of Czecho-
-,. ovakia and of the Government. The -text
of the statement is signed simply and
anonymously: ' A group of members of the
Central Committee of the Communist
Party'. They are still unnamed, or at least
: y were still unnamed this afternoon.
-hey will remain unnamed unless and until
some puppet government can be installed
by the military. Some people who, I believe,
will forever after be reviled by the Czechs
may be bought into accepting the rule of
these invaders.
On this matter our own mission at the
United Nations has cabled us tonight that
the shattering weakness of the Soviet case
was that Malik, the USSR Ambassador to
the United Nations, was unable to name
even one prominent Czech in the Governi'nt
or the Communist Party who could
e identified as one of those who allegedly
had asked for the Soviet intervention. He
did not in fact name any Czech Government
or Party leader at all.
Because of what I have said in recounting
history of this matter and because of
the facts I have previously presented I do
not believe the Russian claim. The Government
does not believe the Russian claim.
I think the Parliament and people of Australia do not believe the Russian claim and
I doubt that anyone really believes the Russian
claim, although it is perhaps significant
that as far as we know only one government
has made a broadcast in firm support of
the Russian action in Czechoslovakia, and
that broadcast was made over Radio Hanoi.
What we have seen is brute military
strength used to crush a military ally, an
ideological partner, because some measure
of free opinion had been risked. All that is
needed to add a postscript, almost tragicomic,
to this sombre story is something
that appears in a letter written by the Soviet
Ambassador to the United Nations to the
Secretary-General of that body. In that
letter the Soviet Ambassador said, on
instructions from his Government, that the
Soviet Union vigorously opposed consideration
of this question by the Security Council
' and takes this opportunity to call once again
upon all states to observe strictly the principles
of sovereignty and independence and
of the inadmissibility of direct or indirect
aggression against other states or peoples'.
There must be, Mr Speaker, no limit to
the impertinence of these people. This is a
perfect example of what George Orwell
called double-think.
There is the history of this sorry matter.
There are the reasons why this Parliament
is asked on behalf of the Australian people
to vote-unanimously, I hope-in condemnation
of this Russian aggression, in support
of the Czech Parliament, which has asked
for our support, in support of the immediate
withdrawal of the invading forces. The
telling of this story may, perhaps necessarily,
have been dull and detailed.
But behind the words that describe
the events that have happened are
human tragedies in Czechoslovakia and
a check to humanity's hopes in the world.
I ask you to imagine the scenes, reported
over Prague radio to a stunned world, of
bloodshed as an invading tank crushed those
who stood in its way and of bloodshed as
a Czech woman was cut down by a tommy
gunner in the streets. Perhaps a transcript
of one such broadcast will underscore this
point. Over the sound of cannon and
machine gun fire which came across on the
broadcast came the announcer's voice as
follows: This is the last appeal. Shooting is heard outside.
The end is near. Dubcek-Dubcek-Dubcek.
And then the broadcast ended-as, for a
while, Czech hopes for freedom are ended
and as, in sadness, are ended the hopes of
so many of us who had hoped that
European Communism might slowly allow
the leaven of freedom to work and might
slowly become more liberal. The falsity of
these hopes, at least for the present but I
hope not for the future, are now starkly
clear. [ Extension of time granted]
I thank the House. I will not trespass for
long on what has been granted to me. Perhaps
it may be said that this event does not
at once impinge on the Australian people,
but it does. Czechoslovakia, striving for
freedom and some independence, never was,
and is not now ' a far away country of which
we know nothing'. Indeed, that excuse for
ignoring its agony, which was once before
used in the time of its former travail,
impinged not only on Australians in the
long run but on the world, since it was one
of those steps which led to World War II. Czechoslovakia is a part of the community
of nations. When the bell tolls for her
attempt at freedom it tolls for attempts at
freedom everywhere.
There may be little enough that we can
do at present but let us do the little we
can. Let us pass this motion in the belief
that in -this Parliament and in the other
parliaments throughout the world, and in the
minds and hearts of people who elect the
members of this Parliament and the other
parliaments of the world, there will come
a force which, in the fullness of time, will
see that the torch of Czech freedom is
again raised high, as I believe it will be; that
in those other countries which now have
crushed Czechoslovakia the leaven still will
work; that they will get those measures of
freedom and, having them, will not feel
in any way impelled to interfere with the
rights of other countries-because in this
way, Sir, and in this way alone, ultimately
lies the path to peace.
BY AUTHORITY: A. J. ARTHUR, COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT PRINTER, CANBERRA, A. C. T.