Extensive Preparations For S.E.A.T.O. Session In Capital

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28832, 28 February 1959, Page 4

Extensive Preparations For S.E.A.T.O. Session In Capital

“The Press” Special Service

WELLINGTON, February 27. The noise in the Chamber of the House of Representatives at present is almost as great as when Parliament is in session. The lobbies are full of furniture which is being prepared for the conference of the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation in April.

All the green leather two-seat benches were removed from the Chamber recently and will go into storage. Carpenters also ripped out the front row of desks. The second and third row of desks will remain for the S.E.A.T.O. conference. Gone from the centre of the floor is the big oval table which holds the Mace when the House is in session and which is the repository for official papers and reports. An area of battered fleur-de-lys carpets is now visible where the benches, desks and table usually stand. The problem of disconnecting the electrical leads from the Prime Minister’s desk, telephone, the Ministerial buzzers and the bank of switches, buzzers and bells from the table of the Cleric of the House has been solved by the simple expedient of cutting the cables at carpet level Contrary to what was first thought and to the dictates of protocol, not a finger has been laid on the dais on which stands

the Speaker's chair. It is understood that the Prime Minister, Mr Nash, has ordered the dais to be left untouched against the advice of the External Affairs Department experts on diplomatic etiquette. They felt that Mr Nash, as chairman of the conference and also as leader of the New Zealand delegation, should sit on the same level as the leaders ot other delegations. This would have involved lowering the dais a foot or two. Unlike Parliament, the S.E.A.T.O. conference has no desire for publicity. On the contrary, a comprehensive security plan is being put into operation to ensure that not a single word is heard outside the Chamber. As part of this plan, the strings of microphones which have remained suspended above many Parliaments have been removed.