has been privileged to address the legislature of a state of Brazil. For
bringing about this remarkable event, we owe our thanks to a remark-
able program — the Partners of the Alliance. Like the Alliance for
Progress, the concept of the Partners of the Alliance was conceived
by our late beloved President, John F. Kennedy. It was he who saw
that the scale of the projects and enterprises undertaken by the Alli-
ance for Progress would, for the most part, be too massive and im-
personal to be easily translated into meaningful human relationships
between people. Yet he saw, too, that the Alliance for Progress would
be failing in its purpose if it did not bring about close personal ties
between the people of our two nations. It was to fulfill this need that
the Partners of the Alliance Program was conceived. And, since each
of our nations was divided into political and governing subdivisions
called states, the President was inspired to select the states as the
agents to carry out his purpose.

May I say that he could have found no two states more willing
and eager to enter into this exciting and rewarding association than
your State of Rio and my State of Maryland! I think all of us who
have been associated with this program have already been struck by
the many physical resemblances between our two States. Both of us
have beautiful Atlantic beaches in which we take great pride. Both
of us possess a spectacular and scenic mountain region. Both of us
have our principal city as a part of a great seaport; and both of us
can boast a powerful and growing steel industry.

As we share many of the same advantages, so do we share many of
the same problems. Both of our States have large urban populations,
for whom we must provide a prosperous economic climate wherein
they can earn a living. Both of us have next to our borders a large
national capital — or in your case a former national capital — pre-
senting special problems as well as special advantages to the citizens
of both our States. Both of us have rapidly growing populations,
many of whom have come into our areas from distant parts of the
Nation hoping to find a better and more rewarding life.

These are but a few of the resemblances between our two States
which help to make it easy for us to understand one another. How-
ever, I have been impressed by another resemblance, which to me is
even more important than those of geography, economics, or popula-
tion. And that is the resemblance between our two peoples. Even
before I left home, I was privileged on two occasions to meet some
of my fellow Fluminense citizens. During the past year, we in Mary-
land have had the pleasure to receive four distinguished citizens of

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