WASHINGTON POST

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29233, 17 June 1960, Page 14

WASHINGTON POST

Munro Critical Of Vacancy

(Neu? Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 16.

The fact that New Zealand had not had an ambassador in Washington since September 16, 1958. was a melancholy example of diplomacy suffering from the exigencies of party politics, Sir Leslie Munro said at Whenuapai this evening. Sir Leslie Munro, who once held that position and is now United Nations representative for Hungary, arrived by air from Sydney, accompanied by Lady Munro. They leave again on July 9. The main purpose of the visit to New Zealand, he said, was to see Lady Munro’s mother, Mrs S. G. Sturt, who was old and had been ill.

He said his task in connexion with the Hungarian question had been a most difficult one. But it was necessary that the authorities in Budapest should realise that the United Nations was watching the conduct of affairs in that country. “I believe the partial amnesty declared in March this year, limited as it was, was to some extent the result of Mr Kadar’s Government wishing to conciliate majority opinion in the United Nations,” he said. “This Government strongly objects to my mission and resolutely declines to allow me to enter Hungary. But I believe they are not impervious to my watchfulness and to the statements I make from time to time, and particularly that at a press conference in Geneva last April.”