Delegates From 11 Nations For Commonwealth Conference

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28784, 3 January 1959, Page 8

Delegates From 11 Nations For Commonwealth Conference

"The Press" Special Service

DUNEDIN, January 2. Two native chiefs, a former Chief of the British Air Staff, a Maori Adult Education tutor, and a former Premier of Southern Rhodesia are among 45 delegates from 11 countries who will attend the sixth British Commonwealth Relations Conference at Palmerston North from January 12 to 24. The representatives of India, Pakistan and Ceylon have not yet been announced.

“We are expecting delegates from every Commonwealth country and many of them are arriving by air at Auckland,” said Mr G. S. Orr, of Wellington, secretary of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, which will be host at the conference.

v The New Zealand organisation is affiliated to the Royal Institute of International Affairs whose headquarters is Chatham House. The institute compiles information and promotes research on political and associated subjects.

The native chiefs are Chief G. Lewanika, of Northern Rhodesia, and Chief Lugusha of East Africa. Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor, former Chief of the Air Staff, will lead the British delegation, which will include Mr P. Thorneycroft, M.P., who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1957; Sir Cecil Ellerton, deputychairman of Barclays Bank, and Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye, former British High Commissioner in India and Canada.

Accompanying Chief Lewanika will be a former New Zealander, Mr R S. Garfield Todd, former Premier of Southern Rhodesia. Mr M. Te Hau, Maori adult education tutor in Auckland, is the only Maori in the New Zealand delegation. Other members include the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Holloway. Professor J. F. Northey, of the University of Auckland, Mr W. T. Roy, adult education tutor, Auckland, and Mr T. P. Shand, M.P. for Marlborough. Among the topics for discussion will be economic, cultural and linguistic factors in Commonwealth relations, the parliamentary system. external affairs and defence. The president of the conference

is the Prime Minister, Mr Nash, and the chairman, Dr. J. C. Beaglehole, president of the national council of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs.