Mr. President, Mrs. Macapagal, distinguished guests, this house of the American people is honored tonight by the presence of the President and the First Lady of a land that Americans love--the Republic of the Philippines.

All Americans are grateful to you for that moving gesture.

Finally, we greet you as fellow members of the United Nations, which has done so much to guard the peace and to point the way to a better world order.

We have peace and we prize it, but we prize freedom and honor more.

We Americans are proud of the role that President Kennedy and the United States Government played in obtaining that treaty.

The United States enjoys friendship with many nations, but with your nation, Mr. President, there is and there always will be a special friendship, a special quality of understanding between us.

Ten months ago, Mr. President, you came on a mission of sorrow to the funeral of our beloved President John F. Kennedy.

If freedom is to stand strong, free men must be devoted to strength, must be devoted to social justice, to the dignity of the individual, and to the love of peace.

We knew it was right and necessary to help these poorer countries to a better life if we were to preserve our own good life and expand the family of the free.

Under these policies U.S. business and industry exported $855 million in AID-financed goods and equipment to Asia, Africa and Latin America during the year.

The 1961 Act also called for greater use of America's vast private resources in the battle against world poverty.

Interest-bearing loans have replaced grants as the chief mechanism for assistance.

Countries like Free China were ending their dependence on AID and that others would follow.

There will be 15 White House Fellows and they will serve for 15 months.

During fiscal 1963, about one-fourth of all technical assistance was carried out not by AID personnel, but by American colleges, universities, business, professional firms, and service organizations or contract with AID.

Policies designed to protect our balance of payments produced major results in fiscal 1963.

Our aid became increasingly selective and concentrated in fiscal 1963.

I invite the people of this Nation to observe that day in churches, schools, and other suitable places with appropriate ceremonies in honor of the memory of Christopher Columbus.