LU C 0-Bi1 IN H1C 1 1-OF F77. INC3 SCV. i' 3-ICUMIA / 11-11
FRINVU ii'JR~ T OF LACEGS0 2nd Novemb er, 167
Speech by tie 1-rime Mv~ inister, Mr. rodol
Your :_-Ti; Jhnes ses, Your 3xcell-1encies, F arliamentary, hivinisterial Colleermes,
Distin~ uiched Guests, Ladiec and Oentlemen:
In recent wee_-ks we have had the pleasure of welcoming in
this Fvrllamentary dining-rom notabilities from other countries, Heado
of Gover-nment, Heads of s1tate, and now we have the leasure of welcominv
the !-Yead of Government of Laos.
This giver, us a very particular pleasure because we have
admired greatly the dogged courage with w,. hich he and ais countrymen
have faced the threats to their Inde-p: endent e,, istence over the years. 1
am very glad, Prime Minister, that you have been n1J e to respond co
readily and co soon to tie -nvitation I extended to you when I haad the
1-Jes ure of visiting your = xuntry last P pril. " hile wie deeply regret tha
it was not possible because of the singular service She-wlas rendering in
relaticn to the Food and Agricultural Crganisation that th Pines, your
gracious wife, was not Cole to accompany you, vwe are delighted that you
did thinI'k fit to bring Princess Moune, wiho adds her Own distinction to
the cratirhering. ve are glad to welcome also the "" ecretary of . State for Social
V.' elfare, Mr. Keo Viphakcne, and other members of your party. And it
Is a verconal pleasure for me to wielcome again your Con, Captain . S1ouvaenlc
P hourna, who you very kI.-ndly made available as my r: ersonal aid when I
was in your country and he now serves in that ca,-; acity with you.
Cur relations with the countries of Asia are growing closer
steadily and indeed one :. Irhtamost say rapidly. I. nd") ecause of this,
we welcome your visit as the c-rlme Minister of one ofi thle free Statee of
izst 1 cia as we also wielcorned the visit only three weeks-ago of the Prime
Minister of Japan. It vwar, my own special privilege to 1) e the first A ustralian
Prime Minister to visit your country and I had the honour of being I thinilk
I may claim to say the first foreign politician to sit in your C. abinet with' you
and your Cabinet collea27uec. 7 use the word rollticlan *. uecause modesty
inhibited me from descri inyseff as a State.-rnan for this purpose. But
wihen 7 come to you, Sir, 7 am--' nder no such restraint either of langua! 7e
or indeed of cause. You, by your own record the record of a man whlo
on six, ce-;: arate occasions has been Frime Minister of 1his country and G&
Prime 1.4inistershir, whic'h has ex--tended over about 14-years.
P nd desrite ell the threats, despite afy~ zession, desnite
actual . nvasion, you have found ft -ossible to si. Itain tine identity of your
cou-ntri' -nd the cur;-ort of yc--7 eorle and that isa tribu?. te to your own
Statesmanship. ' Y; e have rev--ected the way in which in this difficult
situation you have tried to ad:--ere scrupulously to th--e neutrality of Lacs
as irovided in the Geneva 1. greement Of now, and I have h-ad
first Lhand observation ofL tlis., somethinc of the difficulies you and your
peoy-1e ex-perience in settino2 about those urgent tacks of social and econoinic
develov; rnent which you are -o eager to pursue -rn your own country. / 2
-2-
' Ve know in our much more favoured circumstances here in
A ustralia, with the application we have to make to the needs of security
and the requirements of a growing people, how difficult it is to apply ourselves
as we would hope and to the degree we would desire to the tasks of development
of the resources of our country and the enhancement of the social welfare
of the country. But I wonder how many of us realise that such is your problem
with IL CCC of something less than three million people under arms at
this ti-e, and because of the other demands on your limited resources
you are able to apply only about 17 of your Budget to capital construction.
How difficult these problems are for you and for your people. You have,
I hope, our sympathetic understanding of these problems and our admiration
for the manner in which you are facing up to your own difficulties.
You told me when I was with you there earlier in April that
there were some 4C, CC Horth Vietnamese troops on your own soil and
you were speaking not of those who pass down through your territory in
order to infiltrate into Couth Vietnam but those who were there as a regular
hostile force on your cv. n soil. The Fathet Lao, which is the Communist
military force is roughly only of the order of 2C, C nd you told us then
that but for the assistance which was coming from iorth Vietnam you would
be quite capable of coping with this problem and that there was no grass-root
support for the Pathet Lao. Indeed I remember the very picturesque
expression you used that you are able to contend with the Fathet Lao but the
North Vietnamese came in and established their positions and then down came
the Fathet Lao like a flock of crows. This is a cont'ning problem with you,
and we, with all our difficulties, who have never had to contend with an
invader on our own soil, can have little real appreciation of what it means
to a country of your limited size, a country in area only approximately
that of the State of Victoria. Although you have made it clear to us you
have resources which, given , peace, you would be able to develop for the
well-being of your people.
' e share vi'th you a desire for this peace because we too
can do better things with our own country if we can apply our resources in
greater measure to the pur oses of peace. But you are facing this in very
much more difficult circumstances and with very much more limited
oprportunity. VWell, we have tried to help in various ways and modest as
our contribution has necessarily been, we have extended it gladly and in
the hope that it will help your people to develop for themselves a better
way of life. It is with this same object in view that we have for two
years now been engaged in assisting you in various projects, such as the
beef cattle experimental project not far from Vientiane, and we have had
some of your people come here for training. have assisted you to
stabilise the strength of your currency and we are glad to learn real success
has attended our efforts in that direction.
Now, Sir, I shall be joined in prorosing this toast to you by
the Leader of Her Majesty's Crposition in this country and I am sure that
he shares, and his colleagues share, the admiration of all of us for you
and your people. You come to us as a people with ancient cultures, and you
have established a distinctive national entity and identity. I know that
there were many more millions of Laotians formerly forming part of your
country. Now many of them are scattered through vearious other parts as
a result of invasion or ag2ression in the past. Pnd yet, with less than
three million people in this limited area and inhibited from developing your
own natural resources because of the need to keep up your resistance to
aggression, you have never surrendered to a vassalage which might have
enabled you to go alon~ more calmly and peacefully with the development / 3
of these resources. You have zealously preserved your ovin independent
identity. These are things which we applaud. These are things which
this country has been willing to fight for in two world wars and are fighting
for at this time. V! e see in you and in your enlightened Statesmanship a
ray of hope for the. future in this area of the world. You have been able to
rpreserve your entity, your culture, your independence nd, given the
support of willing friends, not only will you be able to continue this but
you will gladly join as you have evidenced in various institutions in the
region in the co-operative work for peaceful purposes that we believe can
make for a better and more secure life for all people in this region. Co
we welcome you as a symbol of the Asia not only of today but more hopefully
of the I. sia of a brighter tomorrow.
V/ e ask you to carry back to your people the warm good wishes
of the ustralian people and to assure them of cur sympathetic support, and
our ho e that through your difficulties you will retain the identity of your
nation and continue to make your valuable contribution to a peaceful,
procsercus and better world.
Now I ask the Leader of the Opposition if he will join with me
in the toast which I will shortly submit to our distinguished visitor and the
party which accompany him.