Remarks of Welcome at the White House to Prime Minister Egal of the Somali Republic
Prime Minister and Mrs. Egal, Mr. Foreign Minister, Secretary and Mrs. Rusk, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Mr. Prime Minister, it is a very special pleasure this morning to welcome you and Mrs. Egal to our Nation's Capital.
Vice President Humphrey has told me of the warm reception that he received on his visit to your country. He speaks often of the friendliness of your people and the warm hospitality he received from you and your President.
The people of America, Mr. Prime Minister, are delighted to have this opportunity to return your friendship.
We have watched with interest and admiration the development of the Somali Republic in the last 8 years. We know that you have succeeded in building one of the most effective democratic governments in all of Africa. We are aware of your noble efforts to bury ancient antagonisms and to get on with the work of peace.
I understand, Mr. Prime Minister, that this is your first visit to the United States. You will find many differences between our countries. But you will also find much that is the same.
Like you, we value the dignity and the freedom of the individual.
Like you, we are striving to perfect our democratic institutions, to provide better homes, better medical care, and better schools for all of our people.
Like you, we are working with all of our hearts and our minds to secure a just peace.
We are deeply proud that we have been able to offer a measure of help to your people in your own efforts to achieve these common goals.
I had hoped that we might welcome you this morning in the warm glow of a Washington spring. But Mother Nature has seen fit to give us instead just a parting taste of winter. But I know that you will find that our friendship for you and for your people flourishes in every season.
Mr. Prime Minister, we bid you and your lovely lady the warmest of our welcomes.
Note: The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White House, where Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal was given a formal welcome with full military honors. In his opening words the President also referred to Haji Farah Ali Omar, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Somali Republic, Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, and Mrs. Rusk.
Prime Minister Egal responded as follows:
Mr. President, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Secretary of State, Mrs. Rusk, distinguished friends, ladies and gentlemen:
On behalf of the Somali delegation, my wife, and myself, I would like to thank you very much for your very kind words of welcome.
Both my Government and my people were greatly honored by the kind invitation you have extended to me to visit the United States.
Even though my people are geographically remote from the shores of the United States, yet they know and feel that they share with the people of this great country the irresistible bonds of similar institutions of government, mutual belief in democratic rule, and a commitment to preserve the dignity of man and his supremacy over all institutions of government.
Our country, Mr. President, is as large as your State of Texas, as big as Portugal and Spain together. Even though remote in distance by the standards of a bygone age, it has been brought closer to your nation by the modern advancement of technological development.
We are close to others, also, in the family of nations, because geographically we are a crossroads of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Our coastline on the Indian Ocean, as well as in the Gulf of Aden, is as long as yours in the Pacific.
We thus overlook the sealine to more than half the world.
During my visit, Mr. President, I shall try to learn from your great country examples of democratic rule to take back with me to enrich and further develop our own institutions.
At the same time, I feel that I shall have ample opportunity for making comparisons between our own institutions and yours because, Mr. President, even while Europe was being ruled by the arbitrary decree of the elects of God, we in Somalia were practicing a very advanced pastoral democracy.
After independence, we naturally had to adapt the structure of our institutions to serve a modern, independent sovereign state. But the essence of democracy, the belief in the principle, and most important of all, the will to work the institutions of democracy, were all there, all along, since time immemorial and since the beginning of our nation.
I feel, Mr. President, that in this form of government and with its preoccupation with the liberties of the individual, it has within itself the seeds for the ultimate success of the human race.
For that, we are proud to acknowledge with you, Mr. President, and with all those who practice it, a bond of brotherhood and a common goal for our endeavors.
Mr. President, I should once again like to thank you for your kind invitation and for your kind words of welcome.
I hope that my short stay in the United States will contribute to a closer cooperation between our people and our countries.
Thank you.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks of Welcome at the White House to Prime Minister Egal of the Somali Republic Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237338
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