SPEECH BY THE PRIMI MINISTER, THE RT. HON.
R. G. ENZS T THE SECOND FREEDOM RALLY
ON NOVa _ o.
Sir, I didn't quite like that last little bit because it
made me sound so dreadfully old. ( Laughter) At a meeting
of this kind I assure you i feel quite boyish.
Like you I greatly enjoyed the very powerful and
eloquent speech made by Senator iMcManus, who has consistently
stood, for as long as I've known him, where he has stood
tonight in his speech. ( Applaue)
One other preliminary observation perhaps you will
allow me to make, and it is this. Many of you, all of you,
directly or indirectly, have come from countrie" now in a
state of bondage, but once the homes of scme of the greatest
leaders of freedom in history.
This is one of the most terrible facts of modern
times that great nations, familiar with freedom, by having
struggled to win it, by having produced great men and women
who have been its expositors, and its protectors, should now
find themselves what we call, politely, the ' satellites" Of
the Soviet Union; what, in fact, we ought to call the slaves
of the Soviet Union. ( appiause)
Now, to me there is always a ;: gct thrill about
speaking to people rwho find themselves in your case. Because
having come out of the ' house of bondage' you now have the
indescribable joy to yourselves of living in a free country.
And some-thing of that emotion was in your minds, I
believe, certain1y in mine, . hen, at the very beginning of
this meoting, the choir sang t. ho National Anthem. Never in my
life have I heard it so wr. ll sung. ( Applause)
I don't propose co make an unduly long speech to you.
Some of the things that are in your mxnds, and in mine, some of
the things that have been touched on this afternoon by the
Senator, engaged the attention of the repesentatives of 98
nations quite recently in eNo York. And on the occasion of
that meeting, speaking on behal f of . ustralia; speaking, I
think, on behalf of every non-Communist inhabitant of
Australia ( Applause) I took the opportunity of speaking direct
to an audience which included the Soviet Union, and included
the satellite loaders.
But, I just first of all give you one little view of
those proceedings which shows what utter humbug is involved in
the claim of the So-. iet Union that thes captive nations are,
in reality, willing, and free and join with the Soviet Union
of their own choice.
The leader of the Soviet Union is a rather remarkable
man. ( Laughter) Ho has a technique all of nis o. wn, One of
the techniques is to applaud very violently when a good
Communist sentiment is uttered by scioebody. And in order
that his satollites, in order that thosu h umble, obedient
servants, who ha eo eeon foisted on to your old and historic
nations, should know when to come in at the right time, he
always used to start clapping with his hands up. And they all
looked, took the cue. and then you could pick them all out,
applauding violen ly.
if, on th. cther hand, he wanted to donounce
something that was being said by a person who expressed free
sentiments, he would beat on the desk, sometimes with both
fists and sometimes with a shoo. ( Laughter) And the moment
that began they would all be looking around, they would see,
they would get the cue then they would all begin to boat on
the desk. ( Laughter)
None of them used a shoe except him, because,
naturally, in a slave community it is only the mater who can
afford decent shoes. ( Applause)
Now, Sir, it has always been prominently in my own
mind that there is a good deal of nonsense, a good deal of
confusion of thought, if one may put it quite kindly, about
the position of the captive nations.
Khrushchev's great exercise, so he said at New York.
was to forward the cause of disarmament. Because, according
to him, if his ideas on disarmament were accepted, then oeaco
would come to the world. A very beguiling sentiment, that.
But so untrue! Disarmament is one thing, and we should all wish,
some day, to soe it guaranteed and honoured. But it is a
great mistake to believe that the existence of armis is the
cause of tension in the world. It is the result of tension
in the world, not the cause, is the Senator has pointed out
so accurately, you might arrive at agreements on maters of
that kind, but if, at the end of it all, the Soviet Union is
loft with its booty, is left with its enslaved ccmaniunities,
then peace will have come about on a basis of perpetuated
injustice. * ind a peace of that kind is not peace at .11.
( Applause) If the Soviet Union wants peace, if it want" to
remove the causes of tension, then its first task at home.
It's first task is to set free the people whom it has enslaved.
( Applause) Somebody, of course, may say, with a good deal of
cynical truth perhaps, that fine words won't set these people
free. You may say: " How are we to go about helping them to
recover their freedom?".
And on that I want to say that the most powerful
weapon will be the opinion of honest decent men and rwonen all
over the world. Don't let us fall into the error of thinking
that by waving a wand, a Communist dictator can strike out of
the hearts and minds of people their passion for f2eedom.
They may control them with their beliefs; they may control
them with threats and cormands. But freedom is not such a
fragile plant. Freedom dies hard. And there are rmillions of
people in ] urope today whose passion for freedom is not
destroyed by the presence of a Comimunist Commissar. ( Applause)
On the contrary, their passion for freedom will grow
the more they see the symbols of enslavery.
I am an i,-nsnse believer in the spirit of ;-Ian. The
spirit of man is the greatest and r. ost powerful thing in
creation. And you don't put it down in a year or two. You
don't put it down in a generation or two. You don't out it
down by laws or comands or by force.
Does anybody suppose, anybody who is of -ay own race
suppose, that we would knuckle down in perpetuity to some
foreign master? Of course not.
3.
This spirit is the most powerful thing in the world
and I think it is a wonderful idea that every year you should
have a Rally of this kind. Keep on having Rallies of this
kind. ( Applause) Because the very fact that in one city
in Australia thousands of people can come together to offer
oncouragemont, mutual encouragement and encouragement to those
who are far distant from us, will have its effect,
These things get past the Iron Curtain; these
things filter around the world; these things will help to keep
the flame of the spirit burning bright in our friends in these
captive countries. A reference has been made already, and I propose to
make one myself to the hypocrisy of the current Cornmunist
attack on " Inperialisn" and " Colonialism".
I wonder if I might just to show that I didn't
think of this just this afternoon impose on you one or two
very short passages from a speech I made at the United Nations,
a speech which the great Khrushchev himself described to me
afterwards in conversation as " very sharp".( Laughter)
( Applause) I said, among other things, this:
" There are some who have so far misunderstood the
spirit of the United N-tions as to resort to open or veiled
threats, blatant and, in some instances, lying propaganda,
a clearly expressed desire to divide and conquer. They
should learn that ' threatened men live long' and that free
nations, however small, are not susceptible to bullying".
( Applause) I then said:
" I'll permit myself the luxury of developing this
theme. In his opening speech, Mr. Khrushchev made his
usual great play about " colonialism". is Mr. Macmillan
reminded us, the answer to much of his story is to be found
in the presence in this Assembly of many new nations, once
colonies and now independent".
( None of them, mark you, colonies of a Communist
power). " Mr. Khrushchev said among other things" and I quote
these rwords, they are an exercise in humbug " nations who
oppress other nations cannot themselves be free. ( Laughter)
Every free ( and I'm still quoting him) nation should help
the peoples still oppressed to win freedom and independence'.'
( Applause) This was the only point on which this old chap seems
to be on our side, ( Laughter) ' Every free nation should help
the peoples still oppressed to win freedom and independence'.
., nd I said myself,
" This was, in one sense nost encouraging obseovation.
It made me wonder whether we were perhaps about to see the
beginning of the era in which the nations of Europe, which
were once independent, and are now under Soviet Communist
control, were going to receive the blessings themselves of
independence. ( Applause)
". hat a glorious vista of freedom would be opened up
by such a policy. How much it would do to relieve the
causes of tension, and promote peace. I venture to say that
it is an act of complete hypocrisy for a Communist leader to
denounce colonialism, as if it were evil characteristic
, D
of the Western powers, when the facts are that the greatest
colonial power now existing in the wrorld is the Soviet
Union itself". ( Applause)
Sir, it's a very ill business to quote yourself, but
having quoted that, you will see that we have here almost the
beginnings of a new and terrifying political alliance between
Senator McManus and myself. ( Laughter, Applause)
Now, Sir, I thought, and I still think, that the two
objects of Communist strategy as disclosed at the United
Nations itself are these.
First of all they want to keep under their control
the nations they already have stolen. And they want to keep
them without saying anything about it. They don't want other
people to discuss it. They want this taken as something that
has been done and that can't be undone; something that has
got respectable as the years go by. They just want everybody
to assume that " Well, there it is; it's there. -nd it can't
be changed". The statesmen of the Ueste. n world will do very
badly for the future of the world if they over allow the
Communist powers to forgot that they are the slave masters
if they ever allow the world to forgot that there can be no
true peace in the world until these people have been set free.
But that is the first object of the strategy.
And the second object of the strategy is to deal
with the new nations. This is something of the highest
possible order of impertinonce. There are new nations there
were a dozen of them this year at Now York, a large number of
then from , frica. as these new nations come along,
having once been colonies, having been granted independence,
having under the enlightoned policies which have been
practised in the Jostern w-orld, cone to be their own nrsters
to chose their own form of Government, the Soviet tactic is to
say to them, day after day, speech after speech, with
terrifying reiteration, " You must be bitter; you must preserve
your bitterness; you must go on hating colonialism" which to
then is a mere matter of past history.
This attempt to emoiJtter then, is of cou-, se, clearly
an attempt to put them into that frame of mind in which they
will be ready to receive the Cormunist doctrine, in which they
will begin to blame everybody else for all their troubles and
therefore be very very willing to say to the Soviet Union,
" Thank you so much; you've been very sympathetic; you've
nade us feel very bitter. Now you, no doubt, will be the
people to help us". And then they step in with their " loaded"
assistance. That is one way of doing it.
. nother way and this was practised very
considerably there was to adopt threatening attitudes. It
was almost strange, weird, to ne, to be sitting there,
listening to some of these terrible tub-thumping perforances,
and laughing at them, as we have the habit of doing in
Australia. We are not very responsive to tub-thumpers. And
we would be sitting there laughing at these ridiculous antics.
But I could see other deleoates from new nations who
looked interested, who looked occasionally inpressed, and
sometimes who looked a little apprehensive as to whether they
could afford to disagro with people of such strength and
violence. But that's the Soviet technique at the present time.
I an happy to toll you that I don't think that, by
and large, those tactics succceded at all. i don't think that
Khrushchev understands the J. stern nind. I don't think that,
for all practical purposes, he is a Europe: n in his outlook.
He doesn't understand the . Jostern nind, moaning by that the
mind of all the people, or most of the people in the nations
from which you como, and in our own nation, and in all the
great powers of the Jedst.
The best proof of that to me was that here and here
and here, as one went around, one got the immediate reaction
of a lot of these represontatives, ' After all they have come
to froedom; they have cone to independence; they have a
proper pride in it.' They feel the dignity of freedom; they
feel the dignity of being in a country, the master of your own
system of Government. And they are not so impressed by
undignified rabble-rousing shouting and thumping as Khrushchev
appears to imagine. I venture to say that psychologically,
on the wholo, he lost ground with the now nations by his
antics at New York last month. And I hope that is true. I
believe it is true.
Now I said something a little while ago about
" woolly-minded" people. There are two groups of nations,
small nations, in the world in whom we are bound to have a
brotherly and continuing interest. One I've already referred
to you represent them here today the captive nations.
But the other group is those nations on the fringes
of Cormunism of Communist power who are at risk at this
very moment, who are liable at any time to find Communist
infiltration, Co-mmunist aggression, probing by thom, stirring
up Communist disorders inside the country, undermining the
Governnont, undermining respect for the law,
. nd these countries are in a state of danger and we
must never forget them.
In South-East . sia, look at them, Laos, Cambodia,
South Vietnam, South K'. rea, Formosa. And yet I've heard people
who would profess to be quite thoughtful and respctable
people, blithely say that if you should establish some terms of
peace with Communist China by handing over Formosa to them,
that would be a price worth paying for peace,
Did you ever hear such utter iruddlo-huadod nonsense?
If you can hand over one country because it is small, well you
can hand over another one because it is small. . Jo could go on
retreating and retreating and retreating before this
Communist advance until there is no free country left between
Australia and the..( Applause)
Now, Sir, we have been speaking this afternoon
about Communis. m, because C:: mmunisn is the enemy. People seem
to think, or sol.. e people do, that you can meet Communism by a
sort of reasoned logical 3rgument.
This is not a matter for logical argument. You just
cn. msider how the captive nations in Europe bucame captive
nations. Jhy when the second world war began it was, in
the view of the Communists in Australia who are the mere
faithful echos of the Comunists of Moscow, an Imperialist war,
when they did their best in Australia to sabotage it.
r. d at that time, with a friendly Germany the Soviet
Union picked up two or three powers. It ensconsed itself in
the Baltic States. It gathered in a few sl,.-ve cuntrios under
the guise of the friend of Hitler's Ger:. any.
6.
But when Hitler i-oved into Russia to attack then,
then of course the war became a respectable one; they wore
our groat allies. And when the Iwar was over, as our friends,
they picked up a few nore European countries. ( Applause)
Now, that, ladios and gontlenon, is what we call
pure opportunismi. They are not working on a theory. They are
looking for practical results, And they will go wherevor they
can get a practical result and use any Athod, or any
association that is calculated to produce it,
œ. nd thorooro one of our perennial tasks is to watch
Conrunisio, to chock Cor.' unism, to put it down, so far as we
can, rherever we find it. ( spplausc)
It is a very trite saying that Covnunism is the
encimy of individual freoodon, Lot rino repeat to you frodon
is not someathing that you got by ict of Parliaiiont. Froodomn
is not somothing that you get as . a group of people. Freoodon
is individual, I an-a free m-an; or I a, not You are a
frooee an, or a froee woan; or you are not. And Comrmlunism has
no patience with individual froadon,
Of course they are able to show the world how clover
they aro, how technologically advancod they are, as indeed
they are, by putting Sputniks into orbit, d in. all these
strange things. Of course they can do it. Because they have
conplet control of every man and wonan in their boundaries.
And if they want to direct their scientists to got on with
these warliko, or thre:. tning, activities, they will.
Ihile wo, who enjoy the blessings of froodom, and
have done so for so long in . ustrali, in the United States of
miierica, in Groat Britain, have developed science for the
bonofit of mankind, in riodicine, in halth, in comnunictions,
in a thousand different ways on a scale that the Soviet Union
has never droamnt of. ( Applause)
Commnunisn is therefore the enomy of individual
freodomn. It is the eneomy of the law. There is nothing that so
turns m y stomnach as to read, either a Comunnunist or a fellow
traveller of whom there are mnany, talking about the law,
claiing sonothing about the law, invoking the law. I wonder
how much a lan can invoke the law in the Soviet Union, I
wonder : rhat'the rights of the ordinary individual may be in
Commzunist China. I've said somthing, to you about science controlled
science, slave science if you like, and the science of froee
men. But abovo all those things, and I think we find a great
common ground, above all these things Comnunis.: is the clear
enomy of religion, of religious faith.
Now what sort of world w'. juld it be if Comm--unisu,
through somo fault of ours, through su:_ o laxity on our part,
through some folly or idlenoss on our pcmt, achieved its
aimbition of conquering the world?
Sworld without religion a world in wvhich the
faith of our f::. Athols is proscribed and struck down by people
who are the m1ost blatant mat:. lists.
That is not somoathin that we can contlnplato. But
there again my great con'fort is this, That just as froodon is
not easily boaten out of the hoart of man, s-is faith not
easily beaten out ofhim, You cannot take thousands, nillions,
hundreds of nillions of people who have a faith of their own,
and destroy it, meorely by ordor or conand.
I coi. e-back all tho tioto the fact that under some
circuustanco s thoso people, if they carry their ag, ;; rossion to
the point of a. rms, woul d havo tl be 1meti by ari-s, lbhatovor tho
disastor m-i~ dht bo.
But in te eaimone of the groat uarantcos
that have ag. ainst their at-L-rossion is that we prosorve in
our hoarts and i-inds an entl-usiastic faith, a7n enthusiastic
bolic-f, a missionary fooling of freedom,. That is vihat you arc
here today to rjncw. ( Applause))
Sir, it is a very -roat privili., o for mec to be hare.
I said to the Lord 1iayer just bofore I up that five
e'cl3ckI on Saturday afternojon s., emeid a rathelr odd tii-je for a
-roctin Do y-ou know r1hat he said to nie? Ho said, " It's
your faultl1 Beca,-use they wanted to h rve you, Cnd that was the
only time-, L tha-t suited you" t( A1* pplause)
., nd so, Sir, before I sit down, I apelo:-, iso to you.
But I also propose before I sit do3wn to thank you for a m--ost
: aioiu-orablo experience. Nothin. but uod can coinci of the
rafroshi-ont of spirit, the m-utual Dncour-, 1,, 2--ont, that a
ila::-nificont meeoting-like this produces for all of us. ( AIpplause)