France Speech by the Prime Minister of France, M. Jacques Chirac, at a
dinner in honour of the Prime Minister of Australia in Paris on
6 January 1975
Through one of those unexpected incidents
such as are often met in the lives of individuals
and peoples, the circumstances of these recent
days make your presence amongst us specially
significant. Indeed how could I fail to mention,
at the time when we have the honour and the
pleasure of welcoming you, the ordeal which
has just struck Australia? You were already in
Europe when you had to return to your country
and face the consequences of the Darwin disaster.
That you should have wanted against all
other considerations to keep to our joint plans,
that you should be in Paris today as previously
agreed, gives us an even better appreciation of
the importance of your visit to France and must
have consequences for our two nations and our
two States.
Our awareness that Australia and France have,
despite space and distance, very real common
interests-in many regards fundamentally
so-is further reinforced by a coincidence of
dates which is of symbolic value. We are in
January 1975: So it is exactly 60 years since
the first volunteers from the southern continent
first took part in the battles of the great conflict
which then divided the world. In the hardest
struggles at Vimy, as on the steep slopes of
Gallipoli, the Australian soldiers, with their heroism
which was to become legendary, bore witness
that to defend human liberty and the
independence of peoples, solidarity between
old Europe and their new country remained
essential. You may be sure, Mr Prime Minister, that the
French people have not forgotten. Sixty years
have gone by since those days in 1915 when
men of our two people discovered what a terrible price they had to pay for the right to retain
their identity. Another war tore our universe,
and your country, even more than in
1914-1918, experienced its dramas, bore its
effects and played its tragic part. Thirty years
ago, almost to the day, one of your predecessors
declared, so close was the threat: ' Australia
belongs to the Australians and it must remain
so. Neither you, nor we, have forgotten the lessons
of those years of anxiety. We know that peoples
must remain independent for men to be free.
We know that to remain independent peoples
must be capable of assuring their defence and
be determined to assure it. But we also know
that the will to remain independent and free
requires that men should also experience, in
their daily life, the value of independence and
the meaning of freedom. In modern industrial
societies this necessarily means that everything
must be done to provide everyone, whatever his
social or economic status, with a full share in
decisions, in choice and thus in responsibility.
We know, Mr Prime Minister, how well you
have perceived this. We know with what determination
you have laboured for Australia's
further evolution and to develop new forms of
economic action and social innovation.
Frenchmen are all the more attentive to your
efforts because for their part and in accordance
with conditions deriving from their own history,
they are pursuing with perseverance an undertaking
which is in many ways comparable to
yours, for French society to transform itself
without chaos and modernise itself without
breach. Tomorrow is not the contrary of today,
rather it is its development.
The growth of your country is a fine example of
this. For nearly two centuries men from Europe
have established themselves on its soil, have
organised themselves there into a new society
which is neither a copy nor the reverse of the old
world which they had left. Australia has known
how not to be an antipodean Europe without at
the same time forgetting or neglecting anything
essential from the European heritage.
On that immense continent at the far end of the
Asian world, on the Indian ocean and the
Pacific, a new people has taken shape. Australia
has seen the development of a distinctive culture
and civilisation and become an industrial
power; its very geographic position as well as its
resources of raw materials confer on it a situation
of first importance in the world of today.
Europe, which is now in the process of constituting
itself, intends for its part to maintain in
the world affairs the position assigned to it by its
history and economic weight; to say this is to
say how much it is in the interest of our two
countries to draw closer together and to understand
each other better.
You could have with France a close dialogue an
even a special relationship. This is why to receive
you in Paris, Mr Prime Minister, is not only
an honour for us, it is also a responsibility, for we
must now determine what Australia and France
can henceforth do together. It seems to me that there is between our two
peoples, despite distance, a manifest propensity
to co-operate with each other and there are
elements within our two economies which are
so complementary that to fail to draw them
together would be to fly in the face of both logic
and the mutual interest of our countries. In the
industrial and scientific sectors vast fields could
be opened for close co-operation between our
firms, our scientists, our engineers; for a pooling
of our techniques and resources, our ambitions
and our capabilities. This can contribute to meet
the economic challenges of the last few years of
the millennium and to bring our two peoples
closer together. Our national interests command
us to place no limits on our imagination
and to defer no decisions.
I want you to know, Mr Prime Minister, that
there is on our side the political will, if you so
wish, to go a long way together. France wants to
be, before long, amongst Australia's principal
associates. Your stay in France is thus not only
the occasion to note that, despite all hazards,
our countries are close to one another in their
view of international life, of democracy and
social progress. It will enable us to give new
bases to our joint actions so as to reinforce between
Australia and France, between Australia
and Europe, ties which are not only those of
memory but those of a concerted effort for
growth, independence and peace.
Mr Whitlam talks to Madame Chirac. wife of the Prime Minister of France, at an official dinner in Paris.
Speech by the Prime Minister of Australia at a dinner given in his
honour by the Prime Minister of France in Paris on 6 January 1975
My wife and I are honoured by the welcome you
have given us. It typifies the cordiality and
graciousness we have come to expect from your
country and her people. No one who visits the
capitals of Europe-certainly no politician-can
escape the feeling that Paris is the high point of
his mission, that all his expectations, all his energies,
indeed all his anxieties, reach their
keenest pitch in the capital of France. In Paris
we renew our contacts with one of the great cities
of the world, with the capital of the French
Republic, with the city that uniquely symbolises
the spirit of Europe itself. Nowhere are the history
and culture of Western Europe so closely
and visibly identified with her present economic
and industrial power and her future political
aspirations. I declare Australia's firm support for the ideals of
the European Community and the promise it
holds for the peace of the world and the happiness
of mankind. Many nations have had a part
in shaping the European experiment, but
France is rightly seen, and will rightly be judged
by history, as the founding spirit and guiding
force in the movement for European unity. For
all her national pride and for all the intensity of
her national ambitions, France has put Europe
first. There have been times when Australia, in
pursuit of her own interests or in defence of her
traditional trading links and partnerships, may
sometimes have seemed reluctant to give her
full support to Europe. We have no such reservations
today. The Common Market is
Australia's second largest single trading
partner. We cannot ignore it; still less do we
under-estimate its importance as a force for
enlightenment, for universal prosperity and for
the general progress of humanity. The prosperity
of France and the prosperity of Europe are
indivisible. Equally, the prosperity of Europe
and the prosperity of the western world are
indivisible. Without the friendship and goodwill
of France, the friendship and goodwill of Europe
are an illusion. I would be less than frank, Prime Minister, if I
failed to acknowledge that Australia's relations
with France have been strained in recent years. I
would be equally lacking in sincerity and candour
if I apologised for the actions on Australia's
part which contributed to the difficulties between
us. You know the record of our
differences. I stress that the course we took
was not motivated by any hostility from our
people towards the people of France. Nor was it
inspired by any narrow political ideology: it was
in fact supported by all political parties in
Australia. It is sufficient to say now that the
main cause of our differences has been largely
removed, and I am bold enough to believe that
whatever France may have said of our attitudes
at the time, our policy would have won some
respect in a nation renowned for the vigilant defence
of her own national rights and interests. I
believe there are no longer any outstanding or
lasting problems between us. Here in your capital,
as the guest of your Government, as a long
standing friend and admirer of your country, I
proclaim Australia's desire and Australia's
readiness to strengthen and enlarge her relations
with France. We want to build on the great
traditions of friendship and co-operation that
have guided our relations in the past. I am confident
that we can do so. I believe, Prime Minister,
that you share my confidence.
It is a happy precedent, a happy omen, that the
traditional contacts between our countries-the
basis on which we must now build together-go
back to the very foundations of Australia. I hope
the French people will come to know more of
Australia's standing as a modern and highly
industrialised nation; a nation that has made,
like France, important contributions to art, to
industry, to science, to social organisation and
other fields of endeavour; a nation sharing with
France the historic Western values of liberty,
law and parliamentary democracy. Australians
are well aware of their historical and cultural
affinities with France. They are well aware of the
vast reservoir of goodwill and shared experience
that exists between us, as former allies in war
and as great trading partners in peace.
I give two examples of the range of contacts between
us. An exhibition of Australian art has
lately been seen in Paris. Only four weeks ago,
in Canberra, I opened a French language school
and a new local headquarters of the Alliance
Francaise. These are small and recent things. I
mention others more important-for example,
the many discussions which Australians have
had with French officials of DATAR, from which
we have learnt much of value from French experience
in urban and regional planning. Or
again, the record of business contacts-on both
a corporate and personal level-between
Australia and France. On such foundations a
great structure of trade and economic investment
has been built. France buys annually
more than a billion francs worth of Australian
exports. French aircraft are the backbone of the
Royal Australian Air Force. The French construction
company, Citra, is responsible for
many works and projects in our cities. Renault
assembles cars in Australia. Yet even these
links, substantial as they are, fall short of
what our countries can achieve together. France has much to offer to our region, as she
has to the world at large. Australia has much to
offer France. We share, like every other country
in the Western world, difficult economic and
social problems. Your President, a statesman
fully seized of the gravity and complexity of the
problems of the modern world, stated his views
of few weeks ago in these sombre terms: ' The
world is unhappy. It is unhappy because it
doesn't know where it is going and because it
guesses that, if it knew, it would discover that it
was heading for disaster. It is an unhappy world
that statesmen have to lead and that the men of
the media have to enlighten'. I believe the cooperation
we seek between France and
Australia will make some contribution, perhaps
a useful contribution, to the easing of our problems.
May I say, Prime Minister, how much I
have valued the opportunity to talk with you.
We have renewed and strengthened the friendship
between France and Australia. I express
my firm hope, my unwavering confidence, that
our countries will move forward together in a
renewed spirit of trust into a new era of friendship
and accord.
The Prime Minister laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
P'. C i P