 I invite you to join with me in the loyal toast, the Queen. Right Honourable Edward Sciaga, Prime Minister of Jamaica, and Mrs Sciaga, our distinguished guests of honour, the President of the United States of America, Mr Ronald Reagan and Mrs Reagan. The right Honourable Hugh Scherrer, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Secretary, Deputy Secretary of State, Walter Steele, and Mrs Steele. Honourable Ministers of Government, President of the Secretary. History is being very kind to us in Jamaica by having them visit us at this time. As for me, it is as if fate had decreed that I should have the pleasurable opportunity of presiding over these proceedings. I am naturally very happy and proud to do so. I would wish you, Mr President and Mrs Reagan, to know that we welcome you with open arms to this island home of ours, with the warm, friendly spirit of all Jamaica to all America. We are very much aware of the ties of friendship that have existed between our two countries over generations. We are not unmindful of the great act of goodwill you showed to our Prime Minister on your assuming office when you invited him as the first head of government to visit you at the White House in Washington. Are pleased at the relationship existing between yourself and himself. And there are solid grounds for the confidence I feel that it will continue to be so. We are also not unmindful of the great attention you have paid to Jamaica since you assumed office. We are grateful too. I hope that you will long remember your stay here, short though it may be. Mr President and Mrs Reagan, my duty tonight is a simple but nonetheless important one. That is to welcome you. For the honor of proposing a toast to you belongs to the right Honorable Edward Siaga, Prime Minister of Jamaica, and it is with much pleasure that I now invite him to do so. Your Excellency, Sir Floresel Glasspole and Lady Glasspole, President Ronald Reagan and Mrs Reagan, Right Honorable Hugh Shearer, Deputy Prime Minister, Honorable Ministers of Government, Your Excellency's distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It was but a little more than a year ago that myself and my wife Mitzi had the pleasure of being guests of our distinguished guests, President Ronald Reagan and his wife in Washington. It was the occasion of myself and my wife being invited to be the first official guest of the then new government of the United States. And I can recall at that time that we hoped that the day would come very soon when we would have the opportunity of reciprocating the hospitality that we received in Washington. It is our great pleasure today to welcome President Reagan and Mrs Reagan to the distinguished delegation to Jamaica and to have the opportunity of reciprocating that hospitality. Our only regret is that their stay here is so short and that by virtue of the brevity of this stay they will not have the opportunity to personally experience the revival of spirit, the renewal of hope and the determination of purpose that now characterizes the new Jamaica. If they had the opportunity by virtue of a longer stay this personal experience I am sure they would have felt in their journeys to other areas of the island where they would have had the opportunity to meet with Jamaicans in other walks of life. I find some difficulty in offering a toast to the President of the United States. I would be more comfortable in offering several toasts and I am going to adopt the more comfortable line. I offer first of all a toast to him as Head of Government and State for the extent to which his clarity of conviction and dedication to purpose has enabled a strengthening of U.S.-Jamaica relationships over the past year. I would like you to look at the record. In that past year we have had as a part of the strengthened bonds of friendship between our countries the enactment of legislation to allow for conventions to charge their business expenses against their U.S. tax liabilities. We have had the formation of a U.S. Businessmen's Committee which has played a critical, catalytic role in initiating new investment for Jamaica. We have had the purchase, barter and exchange of bauxite for the strategic mineral stockpiles by the General Services Administration of the United States. Knowing well the rigors of the legislative and congressional procedures in the United States it is nothing short of very impressive that all this has been accomplished in one year. It speaks highly of the level of positive leadership which you Mr. President have given to the implementation of your programs a characteristic for which you are both well known and admired throughout the world. I want to offer next a toast to you as a friend of the Caribbean. I recall the initial discussions which we had in Washington on the occasion of my visit with you as your guest. Out of which was born the germ of the idea of the Caribbean Basin Initiative which has flowered today. I commend and congratulate you on bringing to the stage of formulation in one year a most comprehensive program of far-reaching benefits for the entire Caribbean Basin area. It is true that there are still those amongst us who do not consider this comprehensive facility and mechanism to be perfect. And all things have imperfections, but to those who focus on the imperfections let me say that you Mr. President have focused a new light of opportunity on the Caribbean where previously we have disappeared of the darkness. And I would like those who think of the imperfections and of the darkness to remember the words of a former President of the United States Richard Nixon who said, we have endured the long night of the spirit but as our eyes catch the dimness of the first dawn let us not continue to curse the remaining darkness. Let us gather in the light. Finally, Mr. President, I would like to toast you not as a distinguished guest, not as a head of state or government, not as a friend of the Caribbean, but as an American. A journalist in particular often put the question to me about the degree of friendship which exists between Jamaica and the United States. I have tried in many ways to say to them that this friendship is not just a friendship of governments. Governments come and go, but the people remain forever. And in this case we are dealing with a case of friendship among the people of the two countries. In our case we have documented that friendship. A distinguished professor of the University of the West Indies has over the years tested by polls the reaction of Jamaican people to various policy questions which involve the relationship of the people of Jamaica to the United States. And I have compiled from those polls of Dr. Carl Stone the responses of the people of Jamaica which is in this volume which I have as a surprise presentation to you tonight, Mr. President. And those polls are very revealing. I will cite from a few of them the question the US President has promised to help Caribbean countries as part of his government's fight against communism and his support for democracy. Do you think this is a good or bad thing? Good thing? 78%. Bad thing, Mr. President, that in this election you have one hands down in Jamaica by a vote of three to one over your nearest competitor. Regardless of what governments think, the people of Jamaica have their own views. And irrespective of the government in power, the people of Jamaica have had these views through the last regime in power and through the present, and they have not changed. And it is the wise government that listens to the voice of the people. And when politicians by artful contrivance seek to separate us, they can separate governments if they may but they can never separate the people. Indeed, I am not alone of this view. I can go back to the founding of the Republic of the U.S. in such a situation that we have occasion for each other. We have the means of assisting each other. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my greatest pleasure to call upon the President of the United States of America, Mr. Ronald Reagan, to address us. The most honorable Governor-General of Jamaica, their Excellencies, Sir Flora Zell and Lady Glasgow, Right Honorable Prime Minister and Mrs. Edward Siaga, the Right Honorable Deputy Prime Minister, Hugh Shearer, Honorable Ministers of the Cabinet, distinguished guests, Nancy and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the warm and gracious welcome that you've given us here in Jamaica. In the hours of flying down here today and seeing some of the many of the islands for the first time and out over the vast blue of the Caribbean, it seemed as if we were getting a long way from home. It's very funny, but I feel very much at home. It's been said here and it's true, Mr. Prime Minister, you were the first head of state to visit us in the White House after my inauguration. From the beginning, I felt a special sense of closeness and common purpose with you. Your election was only one week before my own, and we were both given mandates to restore economic health to our respective nations and to secure the freedom which is so dear to us all. I followed your progress with great interest and admiration, as in my country there's still much to do, but I congratulate you for the significant accomplishments that you've already made since our last meeting. Your courage and optimism have helped turn around a desperate economic situation. For the first time in seven years, Jamaica has had real growth in its economy and inflation has been dramatically reduced. You have set your country on a course for economic progress by making the hard decisions first and sticking to them. And I know from 14 months of experience how difficult that can be. In the long run, undeniably, all of us in this hemisphere are tied to the same destiny. Today there's a greater common realization of this fact. For us in the United States, observing dedicated men and women only a stone throw from our shore, striving to better their lives and preserve their freedom is dramatic and inspiring. We want to do what we can to help as friends and neighbors. The Caribbean Basin Initiative was presented to the Organization of American States six weeks ago. It is designed to complement the kind of development efforts that you are making here in Jamaica. It is our invitation to you and other Caribbean peoples to join a vast and bountiful market to participate directly on an independent basis in the potential and dynamic of our free enterprise system. There are those who would follow another road. They rely not on freeing a nation's productive forces but on usurping them. But the lesson of history is clear. The system of Marxist centralized planning has invariably led to economic stagnation and a loss of political freedom. The only Caribbean nation which has totally enveloped itself in Marxism, a philosophy alien to this hemisphere, suffers economic deprivation and political repression. Its citizens flee by the thousands at every opportunity, even risking death in the process. The expansion of state control is not the road to progress, it's the road to serfdom, and for every serf there is a master. Failing miserably to develop its own economy, the Marxist model in this hemisphere has become totally dependent on a dole handed out by a far away totalitarian power. The strings attached to that subsidy make a mockery of national independence. This nation has undertaken large scale attempts, not this nation. I should have said that nation that I'm talking about. Has undertaken large scale attempts to undermine democracy throughout the Americas, financed by its master across the sea. The turmoil in El Salvador bears the imprint of this interference. And the recent elections there unmasked the lie that there is popular support for Marxism in that country. Braving bullets, ignoring threats of mutilation and death, the citizens of El Salvador streamed for their homes in the villages and towns, made their way to the ballot boxes so they could register their protest against Marxist tyranny. It was a triumph for democracy and a testimony to the courage of these brave men and women. You had observers there of that election, we had a team of observers there. They came back and reported to me and I told some of your people in the Prime Minister this afternoon of a lady standing for hours in the line waiting for the opportunity to vote. She had been wounded by a ricochet bullet and she refused to leave the line and get treatment for her wound until she had gone in and voted her opinion. Freedom loving people in this hemisphere must stand shoulder to shoulder when liberty is threatened. There's a link between progress and political freedom. The United States has joined with other countries of the hemisphere to offer new opportunity to nations of the Caribbean Basin. The course we advocate leads to independence, each individual in each country, working through its own efforts in the marketplace to improve the life and well-being of family and countrymen. That is the real fruit of combining trade, investment and aid as we've done in the Caribbean Basin Initiative and provides the start but trade and investment activities provide the independence. Knowing you as I do, Mr. Prime Minister, I'm keenly aware of your concern that economic development improves the life of the poor and destitute of Jamaica. This passion for social justice has been a recognizable part of your character since you studied and lived with the less fortunate of Jamaica as a student. Your commitment to improving their lives eventually led you to politics whereas a member of parliament you represented one of Jamaica's poorer constituencies. Mr. Prime Minister, you know full well that platitudes and humanistic rhetoric accomplish nothing in themselves, and the socialist schemes aimed at changing the nature of man and arbitrarily redistributing wealth destroy the potential for economic progress, thus condemning the poor to a life of misery. Alexander Bustamenti, a great citizen of your country and the founder and president of the Jamaica Labor Party knew this. The day we destroy private enterprise, he said, we're going to destroy the same people we speak of as the suffering masses for without industries we will never be able to decrease our unemployment material. I like to think that I share this view with you and I share your compassion also, Mr. Prime Minister. We both realize that a commitment to social justice must be directed by reason, by economic principles that work or no one will live a better life. You and I represent two peoples who believe deeply in their democratic traditions and the ideals of the new world, and together our people can accomplish great, great things. With this in mind, I ask all of you to join me in a toast to the people of Jamaica showing the way to freedom and progress, and to you, Prime Minister and Mrs. Siaga, may we accomplish the goals that we have set for ourselves and for our countries. Thank you all, and Mr. Prime Minister, you were very kind about suggesting that we come back for a vacation in this delightful place, which would be a great joy and pleasure. I have to tell you that if you'd just be patient for a couple of days after we've spoken to the ministers of the Eastern Caribbean islands and so forth, you will find it reported fulsomely that we had a lengthy leisurely vacation while we were here. Ladies and gentlemen, we have heard from the President of the United States of America and we are satisfied. I would wish to thank him for his address and to express the hope that he travels safely to Barbados tomorrow, enjoys his vacation in Barbados, and returns home safely to face all the problems that we know he has to face from day to day and from month to month. And we wish him and his good wife good health and continued happiness in spirit so that we can hope that one day we shall see the world rising from out of the terrible mire in which we now find ourselves to greater heights of attainment on achievement. Ladies and gentlemen, the proceedings are now at an end. I thank you very much for having come here to join with us in this honor dinner.