SEATO MEETING IN AUCKLAND

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27752, 1 September 1955, Page 6

SEATO MEETING IN AUCKLAND

i I AMERICAN DELEGATES t ARRIVE (New Zealand Press Association) i AUCKLAND, August 31. Four members of the United States i delegation to the South-east Asia Treaty Organisation conference on , communications, which will start at Hobsonville on Friday, arrived from ■ Pearl Harbour by Pan American Airi ways this evening. The fifth member, > Colonel A. F. Irzyk, of the United , States Army, will arrive tomorrow. Captain T. A. Smith, United States Navy, the leader of the delegation, confirmed that the purpose of the talks > was to discuss the many facets of communications as they affected the • treaty organisation. It was a tremend- . ously complex field—far more so than would appear to the layman, be said. The meeting itself was part of a pro- ' gramme of making the agreement into : a “going organisation.” All the United States delegates were communications officers, he said. None i of them had been to any previous discussions of the treaty organisation. There was no particular significance in having this conference in New ZeaI land, but the members felt they were i very fortunate to come here. The only one to have been to New Zealand before was Lieutenant-Commander A. B. ! Kunz, who was in the United States aircraft-carrier Tarawa when it visited Wellington last year, said Captain Smith. He had been in the south and south-west Pacific as commanding officer of the destroyer Bush, but had got no nearer than Australia. Another Navy member, Commander B. H. Andrews, and an Army officer. Major H. B. Peabody, made up today’s party. The Australian, French, Pakistan, and British delegations are due tomorrow.