Mr. President, members of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China, my colleagues who have accompanied me:
First of all, my I express on behalf of our entire delegation our gratitude for the invitation we received several weeks ago formally, and many months ago informally, to visit your Republic.
Our invitation, both formal and informal, preceded by a considerable period the events which seem to concern toy most at the present time.
We accepted your invitation to come here as friends visiting your Republic, as friends. The fact that there have transpired events of which we had no knowledge at that time has not changed our purpose. We cone today not to lessen, but to strengthen the friendship between the Republic of China and the United States of America.
We will not — and on this I speak as the elected leader of the peoples’ body of the government — we will not abandon old friends.
We have treaties with, and commitments to, this Republic, we will never shirk from the responsibility of keeping them.
I do not think I need to defend the central history of my country. From the time George Washington raised his first sword, we have been in the forefront of the battle for freedom among men.
In recent decades and in the Pacific, we have a new commitment. We have a commitment not only to the obligations that we have made, not only to our national security, not only to the principles in which we believe, but to the nearly 100,000 American boys who have died for freedom on the coast of Asia since World War II.
Although it is well known in my country, and probably well known among you, that the President of the United States and I belong to different political parties, that the executive branch of the government is controlled by one of our great parties, several of whose members are in this delegation with me, the President has authorized me — at a breakfast on the day when we loft the United States —to give my reassurance, and his reassurance that we will not forget our commitments and that we will not abandon old friends.
We are impressed by what we have seen. We are impressed by the fact that out of your labor and your skills you have converted an economy that was basically lagging to one with one of the strongest general growth periods found anywhere in the world during the last few years. You have converted an island with limited resources to the showplace of the world so far as economic growth and educational opportunities for your people are concerned. For this, we congratulate you.
More than that, we congratulate you on the resolution which you have shown, the character which you have displayed during the unsettled years which have followed world War II.
And may I add in conclusion, that as a follow legislator, who must be responsible to those whom he represents, and as a fellow believer in the principle of human freedom, I an grateful, as are all my colleagues, for the hospitality which you have shown us. May our friendship endure forever.
