Sir Leslie Munro On N.Z.’s Part In World Affairs

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27907, 2 March 1956, Page 12

Sir Leslie Munro On N.Z.’s Part In World Affairs

There was no evidence at the moment of any change in the ultimate objectives of the Russians, said Sir Leslie Munro. New Zealand Ambassador to the United States, addressing 50C members cf the Tin Hat Club last evening. That change might come; but he did not know.

The Russians today demonstrated the sincerity of their policies. The other nations were dealing with the Russians, from the point of view of ordinary international intercourse, much more easily than they had done in the past. There was no change in the ultimate objectives, and New Zealand. as a member of the Commonwealth and of the United Nations, had to bear its share of the responsibility.

“Don't kt us think we are altogether a small nation,’’ he said. “We have a voice. It is a voice which has been heard. It is a voice of 2.000.000' people, and that does not seem a great number. But remember that this is a country of great prosperity and certainly a country of great productivity: its productivity is very much greater than its population.

“If we have a voice that is heard, let us measure up to the responsibility which is ours. I think we have measured up to that in a fashion of whirl) we may be proud.

“Whatever happens in the Pacific is something which deeply concerns us. Let us. therefore, be informed. Let us not treat anything today lightly. Let us remember the enormous sacrifices made, and continued to be made, by the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada and various other members of the Commonwealth. As we bear this in mind. I am sure that we shall live up to our responsibilities end continue to preserve the name of New Zealand and extend its glory.” Hydrogen War Threat The recent admission of 16 nations to membership brought the United Nations closer to universality, said Sir Leslie Munro. It would bring problems. What then of the future? He thought no nation today would dare to provoke a hydrogen war. He was convinced of that. The real danger confronting them was that on the periphery some nation might embark on some particular venture; therefore they had the necessity to continue their defensive preparations. No relaxation of the guard was urged by Sir Leslie Munro, who said ft was so easy to be unduly optimistic end pessimistic. It was so easy for the democracies to be lulled to sleep by professions of goodwill.

The United States was above all anxious for the preservation of and increasing the strength of the British Commonwealth, he said. That country relied for the preservation of freedom and the strengthening of democracy upon its association with the Commonwealth.

Therefore. New’ Zealand was an ally of the United States. The ANZUS treaty was with a foreign State, but he had repeatedly refused to recog-

rise the United States as a foreign State.

“The alliance we have with the United States is one essential for our preservation.” he said. ‘The United Kingdom has borne on behalf of the Commonwealth for many years a grievous responsibility—the responsibility for defence. She bore a grievous resnonsibility in the last war. and when the attack on Pearl Harbour occurred, the full responsibility for our defence fell on the United States, and. we contributed not a little to our own preservation.” Pacific Frontier They were now living in an entirely different world. They had come to the atomic age, an age which had eliminated distance and pointed the way to the greatest prosperity and the most marvellous development of which man had dreamed. It was also an age which evil men could take and use to their advantage. It was an age which could lead to their destruction. K was a world in which they could not survive alone. It was a world in which the United Kingdom had the creaiest resnonsibility in Europe and the United States in the Pacific. Not all New Zealanders throughout the country’s history had realised that they lived in the Pacific.

The attack on Pearl Harbour galvanised the people of New Zealand to the realisation that the frontiers were not only on the Rhine but in Manchuria. Because of that. New Zealand was allied in a defensive agreement with the United States. There was nothing in the pact in the slightest degree harmful to the indissoluble bonds of the Commonwealth. The pact was one of the verv bases of New Zealand’s continued existence. SEATO had not been in being a long time and it must have imperfections, he said. Its membership extended from Pakistan to New Zealand. It was not a paper organisation, and was gathering strength, as a defensive bodv

Did anybody dream that New Zealand. Australia, or Siam wanted aggression? he asked. Where did the myth that the United States wanted to be aggressive come from? It was purveyed by the Russians that Americans were an aggressive people. The United States was largelv populated by people who had come from Europe to avoid entanglement in political problems and he knew that the president of the United States loathed war.

“There is no possibility of his ever being a participant in an aggressive war and one of the most monstrous lies is that an organisation such as this can be formed for aggressive purposes.” declared Sir Leslie Munro. New Zealand's part in the United Nations. ANZUS and SEATO was accompanied by responsibility. The United Nations was all important to small nations. The place was a sounding board for the Communists and there the democracies could tell the free world, and the not so free world, what they thought.