Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

• a country which has risen by its own efforts, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of wartime destruction to become one of the leading economic powers in the world today; • a country which has the good sense to go about the business of running its own affairs with unobtrusive efficiency and the good grace to refrain from telling other countries how to run theirs; • a country with little unemployment, low inflation and interest rates, a high level of savings and no foreign debt; • a country where unions work with their companies and not against them; • a country with a high regard for the family, the sanctity of marriage and the rule of law; • a country where it is possible to walk down the darkest street on the darkest night without fear of being mugged or raped; • a country which respects ancient traditions while at the same time encouraging new initiatives; • a country with a greater appreciation of the beauty that resides in simple objects than any other in the world; • a country which, in all the years since the War, has never fired a shot in anger. When we think about Japan, we should think about some of these things. If the Japanese are investing heavily in Australia, it is because we need their capital today, just as we needed British and American capital in the past. Given our current international credit rating, they deserve to be applauded for being courageous and not blamed for being Japanese. There is no place in the modem world for recriminations or for guilt complexes. Like Ulysses and his gallant companions in Tennyson's poem, we are that which we are. And that means now, today, not what we were fifty or one hundred or two hundred years ago. With this in mind, let "s look upon Japan not as a past enemy but rather as a present and future friend. 5 Speech to thank Mr Shigetaka Ishihara, Consul-General ofJapan, Brisbane and Mr Gaboku Ogawa, President of the Federation of Oriental Calligraphers, and to declare open 'Contemporary Japanese Calligraphy', 17 May 1990 NOTE: THE EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE CALLIGRAPHY WAS ORGANISED BY THE QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY AND THE HARA MUSEUM TOKYO. MR TOSHIO HARA, FOUNDER OF THE HARA MUSEUM, WAS TO GIVE GREAT ASSISTANCE TO THE QUEENSLAND ART GALLERY IN THE JAPANESE COMPONENT OF THE FIRST ASIA– PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART. It is a great pleasure for me to be opening this exhibition of Japanese Calligraphy this evening. My role as Chairman is usually to introduce those who are about to open 24