SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER. OF AUSTRALIA,
THE HON. E. G. WHITLAM, M. P.,
TOWN HALL, LIMA PERU 25 APRIL 1975
Thank you Mr Mayor, for the honour you have
done me and all Australians in this ceremony today.
It is surely one of the curiosities of history that
while an Australian Prime Minister was born in South
America, this is the first time an Australian Prime
Minister has paid a visit to the continent. Those
events are separated by 108 years. For the benefit of
Austr Alians who may have forgotten their history, I
remind them that John Watson, the youngest Prime
Minister to take office in Australia, and the first
Labor Prime Minister, was born in Valparaiso. So
I'm delighted that this is the first visit by an
Australian Head of Government to South America.
I'm delighted that my visit should begin in your
historic and beautiful city a city roughly the size
of Sydney, from which I departed three days ago. It is
fitting that these two cities, Sydney and Lima, and our
two countries countries with similar populations and
with many similar hopes and aspirations should be
participants in the first attempt by an Australian
Head of Government to establish direct and personal
links between continents and peoples on opposite shores
of the Pacific ocean.
This morning I laid a wreath at your
national shrine. Some of you may know that today is
also the anniversary of a battle with historic, indeed
sacred, significance in the minds of the Australian
people. Of course our military annals have little in
common, but I was reminded by this concurrence of
events of just how closely the histories of our two
countries are linked with Europe. Australia and Peru
were colonized by great European powers. Both retain,
in their languages, their customs, their histories,
the marks of their former but still continuing links
with European civilization. At the same time both are
the homes of much older indigenous cultures. During
my visit to your city, in particular, to your
archaeological museum and its magnificent collection,
I have seen evidence of the remarkable ancient
civilizations which flourished on the Peruvian coast.
In no city, in no region of the world, is there a
richer and more diverse conjunction of Christian
European and Pre-Christian cultures.-It has been
an unforgettable experience to see the architecture,
and many of the artifacts, of cultures as varied as
the Moche and the Mazca, the Paracas and the Inca
the Brillians and the splendour of whose works have been
rarely surpassed. / 2
-2-
Like Sydney, Lima is a great Pacific port,
and yesterday, as we flew over the ocean that both joins
and divides us, I was reminded of the important part
the Pacific has played in our histories. It was from
this coast from here, from Callao, and a little
later from further. north, from Acapulco that man
first set out on his conquest of the Pacific. From
here the search for the great southern continent,
Australia Del Espiritu Santo, began nearly 400 years
ago. The Spanish mariners, of course, despite their
courageous voyages, were not the ones to find
Australia, but they went remarkably close. Torres
passed the northern tip of the continent in 1606 and
sailed through the strait which now bears his name.
Forty years earlier, Mendana embarked on a course which
would almost certainly have brought him to the east
coast of Australia in -the vicinity of Rockhampton.
He changed course, however, on the advice of his pilot
Gallego a decision which eventually led him to the
Solomon Islands and deprived him of the opportunity
of anticipating by some 200 years, Captain Cook's
discovery of Australia.
We might well speculate as indeed, many
have done on what would have happened if the Spanish
explorers from Peru had found Australia first. As
things turned out, our histories and development have
proceeded in almost total isolation from each other
during the intervening centuries. I believe the time
has come, the occasion has arrived, to explore once
again the opportu~ nities which lie across the Pacific,
on both sides of the Pacific. It is that belief, that
confidence, which has brought me to your city. Lima
for centuries the capital of most of South America,
is now the capital-of a nation with an important
contemporary role, not only in Latin America but in
world affairs. The second general conference of the
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation
was held in Lima this year. I congratulate your
Government on the success of that conference and the
significant contribution made by. Peru. It is
appropriate that the outcome of the conference the
declaration and plan of action on industrial
development and coooperation the Lima Declaration
bears the name of this city.
For two nations so long aind so far apart,
it is remarkable how many attitudes we share and how
closely we have worked together. Peru is a member
of the organisation of American states and the
Andean group, to both of which Australia has
observer status. We share an active concern for the
Third World and in particular the non-aligned
movement. We are both rich in natural resources and
our economies depend greatly on the development and
sale of those resources. / 3
We were founding members of APEF, The organisation of
iron ore exporters. Australia has observer status at
CIPEF, the group of copper producing states a. nd
there is a prospect of further cooperation in silver.
Australia and Peru have almost identical views, as
coastal states, on the law of the sea. We were members
together of the Security Council in 1973 and 1974.
We are both signdtories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. Having flown to your city across the South
Pacific and experienced once again the serene beauty of
that vast ocean, I recall with pride the efforts of
Australia and other Pacific border states to resist the
poisoning of our seas and skies by nuclear tests.
Some twenty years ago, Mr Mayor, an
important street in Sydney was named General San Martin'
Drive to commemorate one of the heroes of your
independence struggle. Your country asserted her
political independence one and a half centuries ago.
In the past decade, and in the same sturdy spirit, she
has asserted her economic independence as well.
Australia's political independence was achieved more
recently and certainly more peacefully, but our quest
for economic independence, for the ownership and control
of our basic industries and resources, is still going
forward. Much has been achieved by Peru in working
towards this goal. Widely separated as we are from each
other and from many of the scenes of world conflict
and tension Australia and Peru can profit from each
other's example. As medium powers it is very much in
our interests to associate more often and more closely
to help shape a world whose future belongs to us as much
as it does to the mightiest of nations. That is the
true significance of our meeting the conviction
that smaller states, by winning new friends, by
developing new ideas and challenging old
assumptions, by promoting new alliances and new
perspectives in foreign relations, can be a force for
hope and progress in these dangerous and uncertain times.
I am deeply grateful for the hospitality
and warmth shown to me in your country and particularly
in Lima. In sealing, by this ceremony, the friendship
of the peoples of Peru and Australia, I believe we have
laid the basis for a productive and enduring association
between our countries, one that will lead to many
opportunities for useful cooperation and better
understanding in the promotion of a just and peaceful
world.