Mr Casey Has Talks With Mr Nash

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28671, 22 August 1958, Page 12

Mr Casey Has Talks With Mr Nash

(Mew Zealand Press Association;

WELLINGTON, August 21. The Australian Minister of External Affairs (Mr R. G. Casey) this afternoon had discussions with the Prime Minister (Mr Nash). These followed a Parliamentary luncheon in Mr Casey’s honour and his appearance briefly in the distinguished visitor’s seat in the House of Representatives. < His visit, which reciprocates Mr Nash’s visits to Australia in February and March, is in pursuance of the Anzac Pact of 1944 which fundamentally brings the two Governments into close accord on external affairs. The discussions could embrace issues confronting Australia and New Zealand at the United Nations and the forthcoming meeting of the A.N.Z.U.S. Pact countries in Washington. Other issues which were expected to be discussed are disarmament and nuclear tests, the Middle East, China and the Formosa Straits, and Antarctica. Mr Casey will leave Wellington tomorrow for the United Kingdom and the Continent and later will go to New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting. Mr Casey said today that in a touchy world, the United Nations, with all its faults, did represent a meeting place. The best value he got out of the United Nations was the opportunity it provided for “quiet, informal talks” outside the formal General Assembly. S.E.A.T.O. and A.N.Z.U.S. were described by Mr Casey as being of the first importance—deterrents of the first order. “None of us really wants a war because you then have to try to win it. It is much easier to stop war breaking out. That is where deterrents such as S.E.A.T.O. and A.N.Z.U.S. are of the utmost importance,” he said. .

Casey said that he was uneasy about the fairly rapid growth of Communist influence in Indonesia in the last three years. There was an internal security problem in Indonesia but generally speaking Australia’s relationship with Indonesia was “a very good one."

Although he would not raise it. Mr Casey said that it was possible that the question of Australian and New Zealand defence unity would be discussed.

“It is out of my territory, but I will certainly pass on to other members of my Government views expressed during my talks here,’’ .he said. “The thing very much in my mind is the grpat need to preserve unity among the democratic countries in the face of that world menace—international communism,” he said Communism had the advantage of a tight bloc, whereas the democratic Countries were scattered all over the world. This made democratic unity all the more important. “Unity is foremost in my mind at all'times,’’ he said. This could be best achieved by personal contact, and this was one reason why he spent so much time in world travel. Attention Shifted World trends had forced Australia to switch its attention from the Middle East to South and South-east Asia. “We soon realised that we could not spread our butter too thin on the bread.” He said that all Australia’s “diplomatic effort, attention and concern” were now concentrated more on “But this does not mean that we are not very greatly concerned about other parts of the world, particularly trouble spots such as the Middle East,” he said.

Mr Casey was appointed by Sir Winston Churchill in 1942 to the post of resident British Minister in the Middle East, and he held this position until becoming Governor of Bengal in 1944. An end to the Middle East trouble was “a long way off.” and the West was intensely occupied in dampening down tne area to prevent further friction.

Painting Popular.— As part of “better homes week,” a paint firm in Ferry road last evening opened its showroom for demonstrations of interior decorating. For more than two hours every vantage point was packed with more than 200 persons.