Mr. Prime Minister and Mrs. Egal, Mr. Vice President and Mrs. Humphrey, Mr. Chief Justice and Mrs. Warren, Secretary Rusk and Mrs. Rusk, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Webster defines “egalitarian” as one who believes in equal opportunity for all men.
It is not usually the function of the President to expand on Webster.
But I think we can add to Mr. Webster’s definition.
We are all egalitarians tonight, not only in our belief in the equality of man, but in our admiration of a man for whom that philosophy might have been named. No statesman is struggling harder today to realize the dream of democracy for his own people than the man that we honor tonight, Prime Minister Egal.
After our talk this afternoon, Mr. Prime Minister, a friend told me of an old Muslim saying that I am sure you know. It says: “There are four things which can never be retrieved-the spoken word, the sped arrow, times past, and the neglected opportunity.”
Mr. Prime Minister, you have practiced the wisdom of that proverb.
Your words have always served the cause of peace. You have stayed the arrows of conflict which threatened to bring bloodshed to the Horn of Africa. And you have lost no time, and you have neglected no opportunity, in the search for true progress for all of your people.
You come to us, Mr. Prime Minister, from a new Africa where change is as certain as the sunrise. You are one of those who have determined that change shall always mean promise for your people.
You have helped to found a true democracy, where each man has a voice in his nation’s future. You have done much to lessen the tensions that threatened East Africa with the waste of war. And you have begun the long, hard job of economic development to bring your people the food and shelter and education that all men seek and that all men deserve.
Mr. Prime Minister, we here in the United States are inspired by your courage. We admire your perseverance. And most of all we are delighted by your presence here this evening.
Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to join me now in a toast to a wise leader and his people.
To the President and to the people of the Somali Republic-and to the Prime Minister and his charming lady, Mrs. Egal.