The President's Remarks Upon Arrival in Honolulu at the Beginning of His Round-the-World Trip.

Governor Burns, Senator Fong, Mrs. Inouye, Lieutenant Governor Gill, Mayor Blaisdell, General Ryan, Governor Hickel, ladies and gentlemen:

I am very glad you have come out here in this inclement weather to greet us on our way "down under."

Geographically, you are the closest American State to Australia.

You understand--as Australians understand--the web of ties that makes the Pacific nations one family.

You knew, before most of your fellow countrymen knew, that the Pacific is an avenue-not a barrier.

Long ago you knew how important it was to have brave friends in the Pacific--friends who would share the burdens and the opportunities of freedom.

America had such friends in Australia in 1941--when the clouds of war rose over Pearl Harbor.

We have such friends in Australia now, when a new threat to peace looms over all of Asia.

Tragically, one of our best Australian friends has fallen. A leader in the prime of his life has been taken from his countrymen-and from us, his friends and partners. Harold Holt was a statesman who believed that Australia's destiny was bound up with that of her neighbors in the Pacific.

In the tradition of his great predecessor, Sir Robert Menzies, Harold Holt called on his people to meet the responsibilities that freedom always brings. He asked them to join with the people of South Vietnam, with the people of the United States, and with five other nations, to turn back the new aggressor in Asia. His people responded as Australians always have responded in the hour of need. Their men are with us in battle at this very hour standing shoulder to shoulder and side by side with ours.

Harold Holt's vision of Asia--and of Australia's role in Asia--was not limited to the battlefield. The end he sought was not military conquest. It was the building of a new Asia, where nations with a common interest in peace might help one another build the foundations of peace: better lives for their people.

We mourn the loss of this good man, this brother in arms, this friend in the works of peace. What he was cannot be replaced-though what he built will always endure.

I am going many thousands of miles to join his countrymen, and leaders from all over Asia and the Commonwealth, in paying tribute to Harold Holt. I carry with me the affection and admiration of. the American people for the people of Australia. And I know that I carry your deep regret that your fellow citizen of the Pacific has been taken from us--at a critical hour, when the work he shared with us is beginning to bear fruit.

Governor Burns, my dear friend, and my friends of Hawaii, all of you, we thank you deeply for coming here this evening in this rain to join with us on our journey.

Thank you and good night.