A Farewell Note.

I worked so long in the shadow of Bob Menzies, that I was surprised when he did step down. After a caucus vote, I stepped up to become the seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia. I knew I wasready for the top job. At Immigration, I changed 'White Australia'. As Treasurer, I knew all about the high notes, and balanced the budget in decimal currency. As Prime Minister, I sponsored a referendum that recognized the Aboriginal people as citizens, giving them the census, the vote and equal rights I kept unemployment down, while wages went up. I travelled the world more than ever before. In Washington I said, 'All the way with LBJ', when I sent our troops to that futile war in Vietnam. In London, I criticized neutral countries. My popularity was soaring in the opinion polls; the Liberals won the 1966 election on a roll, so that I no longer felt lonely and insecure. It was late in 1967 that the tide turned. My party lost seats in the Senate to Labor. I was blamed for the loss, high inflation and retaining under-achieving cabinet ministers. Why not? I was a conservative by instinct after all. No, I was not ruthless with dismissals, like Menzies.. Why did I allow a second inquiry into the 'Voyager? ' I was eventually proved right about that sinking. Then the doctor diagnosed the depression I dreaded, but carefully concealed behind a ready smile. It was a Sunday morning in mid-December that I drove with friends from my Portsea home to Point Nepean, Port Phillip Bay, to see a round-the-world yacht race. At noon, we drove on to the secluded Cheviot Beach, which was well-known for its high waves and rip currents. I decided to swim there, with a shoulder injury, although my friends begged me not to risk it. I waded into the shallows, then swam into the deep, letting the current decide my fate, not sure if I even wanted to return to the far-off shore. I was alone in the water I had always loved and when I saw high waves about to embrace me, I knew it was all over. -15 April,2015. (Harold Holt, Liberal Party Prime Minister of Australia, January 1966-December,1967) .