EQUIPMENT OF WAHINE

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26514, 31 August 1951, Page 8

EQUIPMENT OF WAHINE

COMPLIANCE WITH STANDARDS MR MACDONALD REPLIES TO MR NASH (New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, August! 0. “In this morning's papers. Mr Nash had something to say about the unfortunate loss of the Wahine. It should be pointed out very clearly and plainly that, when the Wahine left New Zealand. she had been surveyed to international requirements, as recognised in New Zealand, which are acknowledged to be very high,” said the Minister of Defence (Mr T. L. Macdonald) in Invercargill to-day. It was true that the Wahine had an experimental radar set while on the New Zealand steamer express service, but radar was not held to be required by the ocean-going standards to which the ship had been surveyed before departure, continued Mr Macdonald. To say that, if the Wahine had had radar, she would not have been wrecked could only be classed as an outrage. Mr Nash knew well that a full inquiry was pending, and that the matter was sub judice. “In the extremity of desperation, knowing the election was going against him and the party in which he occuoies the most precarious position as leader, he looks to any stick with which to beat the Government,” Mr Macdonald said. “Mr Nash’s remark was not the worst action of a responsible political leader; it was more like the mean tactics of a small-time politician.”