D\, iZW S RELEASE
NQ DATE
M/ 14 6 February 1974
T4,
PRIME MINISTER IN LAOS
Following is the text of an address by the Prime
MVinister, Mr Whitlam, at a luncheon given in his honour
by the Prime M~ inister of the Royal Government of Laos in
Vientiane on Monday, 4 February:
" I am obliged to Your Highness for giving me the
opportunity during my present journey to pay this visit to
Vientiane and to renew an acquaintance begun when you yourself
were in Australia some years ago. I welcome too the occasion to
inform myself of the achievements and problems associated with tbhe
long awaited return of peace and order throughout your country.
As you will know the Australian Government firmly supports the
principles declared in the Geneva Agreements, as to the nzational
integrity, independence and neutrality of Laos and looks to the
international community to endorse and to respect them.
Australia welcomed both the February Agreement and the
subsequent Protocol in September of last year, seeing these as
highly important in themselves but also as encouraging and
heartening evidence of a spirit of goodwill, magnanimity and
co-operation among all parties in Laos of willingness to pursue
a mutually acceptable compromise on the presiding interest of a
genuine national reconciliation. I know how much importance you
personally have attached to this great objective of national
reconciliation and how much is owed to your wise judgment and
imaginative leadership in the progress towards it so far achieved.
I speak for all my fellow Australians when I say that
Australia understands how much now has to be done to bind up the
wounds of war, to repair the loss and damage of so protracted a
conflict. All of us in this room are conscious of what the tragic
events of the recent past have meant in terms of family
bereavement and human suffering, the painful reality which
underlies the macabre statistics of war. But we can
nevertheless look forward with optimism to a brighter future
for all the people of Laos. We cant confidently expect that the
day is not far off when a Coalitionñ Government can make a start
on harnessing national energies for urgent tasks of rehabilitation
and reconstruCtion0 In this work all friends of Laos will wish to make some
contribution to promote the positive development of the talents
and resources of all its peoples. My own Government stands ready
to take part in this common endeavour. I believe that there are
areas in which Australian experience has already proved to have
particular relevance to the special needs of this country, as for
instance, in afforestation a-r~ d i~ n pasture establishment under
tropical conditions. In such fields we may be able to expand
our present contribution, if you wish us to do so, helping to
provide employment in the process to refugees and demobilised
soldiers, and to lay foundations fo-r the controlled development
of important nat-ional resources. We are happy too to continue
our contribution to foreign exchange support for Laos. 1.11 . h1er
directions we look forward to purposeful and practical. discussions
with you of ways in which you think we might help, and where we
would count it a privilege to serve. We are also interested in
exploring with you the possibility of an agreement to encourage
trade between our two countries.
Australia and Laos will both prosper best through a
combination of our own efforts and the promotion generally of a
helpful climate of international. opinion and behaviour. We have
to be both nationalist and internationalist. We see Laos, as it
sees itself, as part of a region linked by geography, circumstances
and history, to the other countries of Indo-China but as a
neighbour also to Burma, Thailand and China. Laos draws a rich
and fascinating inheritance from all these associations, woven
into the fabric of popular life and furnishing the background
of the national genius0 Australia is a more recent neighbour
with a shorter, much shorter, awareness and experience of this -N
3,
area, but we accept fully and completely the extent to which
our destinies are bound up with yours. They both largely depend
upon the degree of success that attends the labours of us all to
Scontribute to a peaceful world order and the prospect of peaceful
access to a fair share of its resources for all its peoples.
There could be no better example to present and future
generations of leaders in Laos in Indo-China, and indeed,
throughout the whole region of South-East Asia, than the
unremitting labour Your Highness has devoted to peace. It is in
the hope of seeing extended the area of peace, of fraternal
dialogue and discussion, that I will leave Vientiane, heartened
and encouraged by the conviction that the path of negotiation on
which you are now embarked is the right one for Laos, and for
the region of which it is part. We shall follow with the keenest
interest and sympathy the outcome of your endeavours and you may
count upon us for support in your achievement.
Finally on behalf of all in my party here today, may I
express my deep appreciation of your generous hospitality to
us all. I regret that circumstances have not permitted a longer
stay and wider acquaintance with Laos. We go away sorry that our
stay was not longer, but leaving our most earnest hopes and good
wishes for the future peace and progress, so earnestly desired
by every Lao, which will represent the culmination of your
efforts as a statesman and peacemaker."