Has N.Z. Prestige Fallen In Britain?

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28784, 3 January 1959, Page 11

Has N.Z. Prestige Fallen In Britain?

(Special Correspondent N.ZJP.A.) LONDON, January 1. New Zealanders in London fear there has been a fall in the Dominion’s prestige in Britain during the last year, caused by the negotiations on the marketing of butter and by the failure to appoint a new High Commissioner in London. Newly-arrived or visiting New Zealanders may well deny or resent the suggestion that events of the last year have made the Dominion any less popular. New Zealanders invariably receive a warm welcome to Britain and personal relationships are unchanged

Yet, from a national point of view, the atmosphere is different. It amounts to a feeling that in her trade and butter negotiations. New Zealand has wanted to ride both on the swings and the roundabouts.

Earlier in the year, when the price of New Zealand butter •slumped and the British housewife relished buying butter at prices little more than that of the dearest margarine, there was much.sympathy for the Dominion. The case presented by the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Skinner) in the press and on television, and his arguments about its effects >n British-New Zealand trade, were accepted and endorsed. There was little objection to the British Government restricting butter imports from the Continent The scene was much changed when Mr Skinner arrived on his second visit of the year. Britain by then had time to realise the effects of New Zealand's drastic

import restrictions on British goods. His arrival coincided with the announcement of the revision of the Ottawa Agreement giving New Zealand the right to lower substantially the preference margin enjoyed by British goods in the Dominion. Butter prices were moving steadily upwards It had been made known that New Zealand remained dissatisfied with both the price of butter and the actions taken by the British Government against dumping and there was a feeling Mr Skinner had landed somewhat in the role of Oliver Twist. Many New Zealanders m London felt that if Mr Skinner’s brief was to be concentrated on obtaining more co-operation from the British Government in getting higher prices or a regulated market, he had been given an impossible task. So it proved. He found the British Ministers polite but adamant. They said that in view of the higher price of butter and the prospect of further increases, they could no longer continue restrictions against “subsidising” countries.

Mr Skinner could see their point and he accepted the inevitable gracefully while conducting his brief firmly Yet the announcement of the British decision was delayed for a week to 10 days because opinion in Wellington insisted that he should reopen the discussions The British Ministers, however, with an election campaign pending, remained immovable.

Mr Skinner has been discretion itself in his public handling of the outcome of the talks, but it cannot be denied that in a rather

vague and indefinable way, the reaction to these events • has caused a change in New Zealand’s prestige. An additional reason, appreciated mainly in diplomatic and Government circles, is the failure of Mr Nash’s Government to appoint a High Commissioner since Sir Clifton Webb returned home last March. While the reasons may be well understood in New Zealand, from a London, point of view it is almost —though the roles are fundamentally different —as though the position of a Governor-General in New Zealand has been left unfilled. This may, perhaps, be too strong a comparison. but there is little doubt that the longer the position of High Commissioner is left unfilled, the worse is the impression, reflecting to some extent adversely on Mr Nash himself. It is felt that even if the political situation at home is so delicate that no Cabinet Minister is prepared to jeopardise his career to accept the position then some New Zealander prominent outside politics should - be appointed. This implies no criticism of the acting High Commissioner, Mr G. R. Laking. But it is felt that a civil servant career diplomat should not for long be High Commissioner. A main function of-a High Commissioner is to be the Dominion's representative in public: and while a civil servant may cope adequately with administrative matters, his natural background and training is to avoid publicity and to keep out of the limelight. More favourable limelight, tactful and well-timed, is what New Zealand needs in Britain today. New Zealanders would like to feel a breath of fresh air from New Zealand House.