PM Transcripts

66
A PRIME MINISTER
MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRAjIA
THE HON. E. G. WHITLAM, M. P., P
FOR THE 50th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE OF
THE U. S. " SATURDAY REVIEW"
DECEMBER, 1974
CONTRIBUTION FOR THE " INVENTOR11 OF HOPE"
( BY GOUGA WHITLAM, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA)
Bertrand Russell once described himself as a cheerful
pessimis',,. and if I may adapt the phrase of so illustrious a
man, -I should call myself a sanguine optimist. It is not,
difficult to be optimistic about Australia. With her moderately
small population, basically sound economy and vast natural
resources, her prospects are considerably brighter than average,
though there is a danger that these blessings, combined with
isolation,. may make her heedless of other nations' misfortunes.
We must resist that tendency, not simply on grounds of morality,
but because the survival of humanity and civilized democracy
will require from all nations an unprecedented measure of
international cooperation. The opportunity for such cooperation
exists in the United Nations. There is as yet no substitute
for it and there is a-good chance that it will survive as a
workable and practical forum.
There are three other things on which I base my hopes.
I base them on science, or rather on the scientific method, which
is our ultimate defence against dogma and mysticism. I base
them on the idealism of youth, of a generation which has already
rejected war and which displays a greater capacity for love
and human tolerance than any before it. And I base them on
man's instinctive common sense, his natural will to survive,
which has carried him through crises in the past and will do so.
again.