CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
AUSTRlALIAN-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
AN'NIVERSARY DIN4NER VICTORIAN BRANCIMIELBOURNE,
VIC. 7 OCTOBER, 1971.
SPEECH NOTES FOR THE PRIME MINISTER
Mr. President, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
When I look around this crowded room tonight
I feel in great heart knowing that there are in every
community, good and able people, ready and willing to
make a deliberate effort to keep our vital friendships
in good repair and to convince others to do the same.
I am glad to be here tonight, Msr. Baxter, as
the guest of your association and its members for this
thirtieth anniversary celebration dinner of the Victorian
Branch of the Australian-American Association.
M4y wife and I have both travelled widely
together in America and we are the first to acknowledge
the warmth and friendliness of its people and the greatness
of its achievements in the cavalcade of history. We have
shared many happy arnd exciting associations with our American
friends on the other side of the Pacific.
Sir, we are delighted to see so many old friends
here tonight and if I may be forgiven for singling out two
very distinguished people I want to say it is wonderful to
have Lord and Lady Casey with us at this table. None knows
better than they how the links between Australia and America
have been forged over the years and I doubt if anyone has done
as much as they have to make those links secure. I know what
a strength Lord Casey has been to the Australian-American.
Association since its earliest days. I do congratulate the
Association on living this long life and one which I trust
has been a merry as well as a rewarding one. I am told, too,
Sir, that the women's group and the Junior American Association
really keep the men on their toes. Congratulations to you too.
Now Sir, I hope you will forgive me for being
serious tonight but an anniversary occasion like this tempts
me to look briefly over the past, and then, more particularly
to look forward into the future in our relationships with
America. .2/
2
I think the pre' -eminent characteristic of the
United Statlkes in the international comrmunity has been its
deep sense of responsibility to work towards a more stable
and equitable world order. It has given concrete evidence
of its readiness to make human and material sacrifices for
this purpose. It has given its blood and its treasure in
formidable quantities. That hasn't always been appreciated
and often not understood. If we can do something to explain
and correct this we serve our own interests and take up a
proper position as fair-minded people.
It is easy to scoff at our democratic institutions.
The way they .) ork and the things they do, be they of the
American, the British or the Australian order; And I quote
Franklin Roosevelt on this point. What he had to say was thisand
I quote'-" I get everlastingly angry at those who assert
vociferously that the four freedoms and the
Atlantic Charter are nonsense because they are
unattainable.
" if those people had lived a century arid a half
ago they would have sneered and said that the
Declaration of independence was utter piffle.
" If they had lived nearly a thousand years ago
they would have laughed uproariously at the ideals
of Magna Carta.
Ancz if they had lived several thousand years
ago they would have derided Moses when he came
down from t-he mountain with the Ten Commandments".
ladies and Gentlemen, your Association was born in
the dark days of World War II and at that time, and in the years
since then, the United States has been a significant, and ind~ eed
a decisive, factor in our security. We must be grateful ' for the
partnership with the United States which prevented a possible
invasion of Australia and led to the re-conquest of the Pacific
by the allies. Australia was, of course, an essential base for operations.
Then we must acknowledge the effective leadership given by the
United States checking communist aggression in Korea and in
Vietnam. We signed the Anzus Treaty wnith them and to this day
that Treaty ranks as our most important Treaty.
I have travelled the Pacific many times. I have seen
the distance shrink as the jets have devoured the space and I
have seen South-East Asia change from a region of turbulence
to one with a more settled and confident prospect.
I have sat in the Australian Cabinet for many years
and joined in the vital decisions we have taken to identify
ourselves more deliberately and more closely with the region to
which geographically we belong. .3/
-3
one of the essential elements in our policy towards
South East Asia has been the Australian-Amierican alliance.
It is of crucial importance to our foreign folic7. This will
continue to be a basic element of our policy, but the changed
nature of the political situation in South East Asia must
carry with it changes in the nature of our relationship with
the United States in that region.
The United States and Australia have sir~ illar objoctives.
We should both like * to see a region which is stable politically,
developing rapidly economically and within which the peoples
are free to choose their own forms of governments. Nevertheless
Australia must recognise that its own particular interests in this
part of the world may call for different judgements on its part
from those of the United States.
Let us look at some of the chanaes that have occurred
within our own part of the world. The first which has
received widespread publicity has been the change in United
States policy itself, broadly encompassed under what is known
as the Nixon Doctrine.
Clearly the United States is no longer prepared to
attempt alone and on a global ecale the containment of
aggression and the construction of a reasonably stable frame=
work of international co-operation. While maintaining its
general support and protection, it has called upon the countries
of the region to do more to help themselves. rle accept this,
and the challenge and responsibility of greater self-reliance.
The second major change within the South-East Asia region
has been the re-emergence of tha influence of powers other than
the United States. This re-emergence has begun to complicate
the ' international political situation.
Japan with its enormous economic strength is in a position
to make a major contribution to the development of the region.
It has regained its international confidence, and its relations
with South-East Asian countries will be increasingly important
in the political equations of the area.
The People's Republic of China appears to be giving-less
emphasis to the rigidities of ideology in the conduct of its
foreign policy and to be showing a new interest in the establishment
of more traditional diplomatic and commercial relationships.
Russia, too, has begun to try to increase its influence
in the area, and to seek closer ties with South East Asian
Governments. All these moves are only to be expected;, great
powers have always interested themselves in affairs outside
their own borders, and will continue to do so. ./ 4
The third major change that I shall note in the
region has been the establishment of increasingly confident
and capable national governments, dedicated to the objectives
of economic progress, social welfare and regional co-operation.
This is a development which has been made possible in large
measure by successful allied resistance to the aggression
against South Vietnam.
Most of the peoples of the countries of the region
have now established their national identity and have installed
governments capable of planning their futures, and resisting,
with a minimum of outside assistance, efforts by minority groups
to overthrow the national political order.
Of one thing I am sure, in the period that lies ahead,
the need for consultation between us will not be less, but
greater. Increasingly with our political and defence relations,
other aspects of our relationship with the United States can be
expected to assume greater importance for example trade,
investment, civil aviation.
In the process, differences between us are bound to
arise but there is no reason why we cannot continue to discuss
them fully and frankly, as we have in the past, and in a spirit
of give and take. This is what a partnership is for.
We look forward to a future where the United States
cQntinues to take a wise and constructive role in the
achievement of a peaceful world order and we expect to make
our own individual and independent contribution to the
realisation of the same objective.
We have shared the dangers of the past in friendship.
Let us share, in the same way, the promise of the future.
I thank you. 1
ZI