VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
KUALA LUMPUR
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton
at State Dinner given by Tunku Abdul Rahman 12 JUNE 1968
Prime Minister, Mr. Holyoake, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The first thing that I must do, Prime Minister, is to express to you my
thanks, very sincere thanks, for your having extended to my wife and I the
invitation to visit your country. And to say that, during the course of that visit,
you have extended to me many kindnesses which I shall remember as long as

i
KLC 1567
KLS 144
IKZXE COUMW
IKZXE OTUAP
13/ 6/ 68
UNCLASS IFIlED
ADDRESSED CANBERRA 1385, REPEATED SINGAPORE 130.
( ATTENTION MISS NEWPORT, ASSISTANT PRESS SECRETARY TO P. M.)
* FOLLOWING IS TRANSCRIPT OF PRIM E MINISTER'S PRESS CONFERENCE
IN SINGAPORE ON 11 JUNE.
FOR MASTER FILE AND INSTANT SERVICE LIST ONLY.
BEGINS: I DON'T THINK YOU EXPECT ME TO MAKE ANY STATEMENT, BECAUSE
THE VISIT HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT IN A CIOMPLETELY OPEN WAY, KNOW,-ING
WHAT HAS HAPPENED AND WHERE I HAVE BEEN. AND THE GENERAL

' 09 1~ a, VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
MALAYSIA
ARRIVAL STATEMENT MADE BY THE PRIME MINISTER,
MR. JOHN GORTON 11 JUNE 1968
I am glad to have this opportunity to visit Malaysia soon after
taking office as Prime Minister of Australia. Our two countries have long
been in warm and friendly association. I look forward with pleasure to once
again meeting'and talking with your revered Prime Minister and his colleagues,
so many of whom are well known to us in Australia.
It is a pleasant experience to fly into K,, uala Lumpur and see

VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
S[ NGAPORE
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton,
at Banquet given by Mr. Lee Kuan Yew JUNE 1968
Mr. Prime Minister, Mrs. Lee, Distinguished Guests Ladies and
Gentlemen: May I start, Sir, by thanking you for the honour which you;
do my country today, through me, by extending this State banquet to us.'
It is an honour the more appreciated because we feel, as later I shall take
more time to explain, that you are an example to the area of the world in

VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
SA IGON
JOINT COMMUNIQUE. 9 JUNE 1968
At the invitation of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam,
the Rt. Hon. J. G. Gorton, M. Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of
Australia, accompanied by Mrs. Gorton visited the Republic from 7 to 9 June,
1968. In Saigon, the Prime Minister was received by His Excellency, the
President, and had conversations with the Prime Minister of the Republic, the
Cabinet and the Presiding Officers of both Houses of the National Assembly.

VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
SAIGON
PRESS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY THE PRIME MINISTER,
MR. JOHN GORTON 9 JUNE 1968
Q. Mr. Gorton you haven't been here very long, Sir, but what is your
7 assessment of the military situation in Vietnam?
PM. I don't believe I'm competent to make a military assessment, I'm not
a military man. We get assessments given to us by our military advisers and
I'm certainly no trained strategist nor a trained tactician, but there is one thing
I do believe is quite certain, and that is the spirit and morale of our Australian

VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
SINGAPORE
ARRIVAL STATEMENT MADE BY THE PRIME MINISTER,
MR. JOHN GORTON 9 JU NE 1968
When I passed through Singapore last week in transit to
Vietnam I explained that my official visit here would be part of a tour
which included several South-East Asian countries. This tour is not
merely one of goodwill on my part as the new Prime Minister of Australia.
It reflects the need for an Australian Prime Minister today to widen his
knowledge of Australia's neighbours in South-East Asia and to gain, at

VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
NUL DAT
ADDRESS BY THE PRIME MINISTER, MR. JOHN GORTON,
TO AUSTRALIAN TROOPS 8 JUNE 1968
There are perhaps one or two things I would like to say to you
and say to you as representatives of all the people in this camp and of all the
Australians in Vietnam who aren't here to say to you what I would like to say
to all of them. I have only been able to meet a few this morning and they are
individuals and a few from each unit. But what can be said to one can be said

VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
SAIGON_
STATEMENT MADE BY THE
MR. JOHN GCRTON 7 JUNE 1968
Thank you for the warmth of your welcome and for your
generous remarks about my country. I received with great pleasure the
invitation which the Government of Vietnam kindly extended to me soon
after I became Prime Minister of Australia.
I was anxious to make an early visit to Vietnam because
Australia's continuing commitment of men and material to support the
freedom and development of the Republic of Vietndm occupies so large a

VISIT TO SOUTH EAST ASIA 1968
Li B SAIGON
WELCOME BY VIETNAMESE PRIME MINISTER,
TRAN VAN HUONG, AT AIRPORT 7 JUNE 1968
Mr. Prime Minister, it is a very great pleasure and a very
great honour for the Vietnamese people, for the Government of the Republic
of Vietnam, and for myself to welcome on our soil today the representative
of a people to whom we are bound by so many ties.
Since Vietnam regained its independence and liberty, it has
had to defend that independence and that liberty against an enemy who is