PARTICIPATION BY N.Z.

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28080, 22 September 1956, Page 11

PARTICIPATION BY N.Z.

AMBASSADOR ATTENDS CONFERENCE (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 21. The Minister of External Affairs (Mr T. L. Macdonald) announced today that New Zealand is represented at the New York conference on the establishment of an international atomic energy agency. New Zealand’s representative at the conference is Sir Leslie Munro, the Dominion’s Ambassador to the United States. The other members of the delegation are drawn from New Zealand diplomatic staffs in Washington and New York.

It is expected that the conference will continue in session until about October 26. “The idea of an international atomic energy agency was first suggested by President Eisenhower in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in December, 1953,” said Mr Macdonald. “All the negotiations since that time have emphasised the President’s suggestion that the new agency should develop international co-operation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy. “Recent scientific developments have shown the great potential benefits which can result from the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in the fields of medicine, agriculture, industry and the production of electric power.”

A group of 12 States, including Britain, Russia, the United States, and Australia had prepared a draft statute for the new agency, and the conference would provide an opportunity for other States likely to join the agency to diesuss, approve, and sign the final text of the statute, said Mr Macdonald.

Bridge Falls In River.— Hundreds of spectators jumped or ran for their lives as a 350-ton section of a bridge being built at Dusseldorf fell into the River Rhine yesterday. The 120 ft long section was being towed into place by a floating crane. As it was lifted it stuck, turned over, and crashed into the Rhine.—Dusseldorf, September 20.