The Press TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1958. External Policy

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28478, 7 January 1958, Page 8

The Press TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 1958. External Policy

It was not expected that the change of government would make any great difference to New Zealand’s external policy. But criticism from the Opposition benches of some parts of the previous Government’s policy might have caused some doubt, in New Zealand and abroad, about where a Labour Government would stand. In a statement of Government policy on external affairs Mr Nash, who is Minister of External Affairs as well as Prime Minister, has generally endorsed the policy pursued by the previous Government during eight years in office. This policy, of course, was a logical continuation of the previous Labour Government’s post-war policy. The cornerstones of New Zealand’s external policy are the United Nations Charter and its membership of the British Commonwealth. Apart from a quite illogical refusal to participate in the special monetary agencies, New Zealand has taken a full share in the United Nations organs and the specialised and associated agencies. Mr Nash indicated that New Zealand’s direct participation will be extended this year if an application succeeds for election (as one of three members elected each year by the General Assembly) to the Economic and Social Council. Mr Nash affirmed New Zealand’s full support for the British Commonwealth and its institutions. Criticism heard from the Labour benches about the previous Government’s external policy concerned chiefly the regional pacts, A.N.Z.U.S. and S.E.A.T.O. Mr Nash gave the proper assurance that New Zealand will fully honour its treaty

obligations under these pacts, though he was inclined to blow hot and cold about the regional pacts. Such arrangements have their value, as the previous Labour Government recognised in 1944 when it concluded the Canberra Pact, intended by the then New Zealand and Australian Governments to be the basis for post-war regional settlement and security in South-east Asia. The value of regional pacts, indeed, is specifically recognised in the United Nations Charter. Regional pacts, as Mr Nash said, are opposed by “ certain impor- “ tant and influential countries, “ especially in Asia ” —a reference, no doubt, mainly, if not exclusively, to Mr Nehru. As for other “ important and in- “ fluential countries ’’ which oppose regional security arrangements in the Western world, they are not above arranging pacts of their own, and, indeed, are trying to create more, as the recent conference in Cairo showed. It is true, as Mr Nash said, that alliances and military strength are not in themselves “ a “ panacea for the world’s ills ”, But the A.N.Z.U.S. and S.E.A.T.O. regional pacts represent (with N.A.T.O. and the Bagdad Pact) substance that it would be most unwise in present circumstances to throw away for an idealistic shadow. Anti-Americanism is not unknown in the New Zealand Labour Party. It is pleasing, therefore, to find Mr Nash expressing his Government’s belief that there is neither a government nor a people which desires peace and the abolition of armed conflict more than the Government and people of the United States.