OVERSEAS TRIP BY MR NASH

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29239, 24 June 1960, Page 14

OVERSEAS TRIP BY MR NASH

Questions About Soviet Visit

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 23.

The Prime Minister (Mr Nash), in the House of Representatives today, strongly denied that he knelt at Lenin’s tomb in Moscow. He was answering a question by Mr D. J. Eyre (Opposition. North Shore).

Mr Eyre asked the Prime Minister if “the fact that he knelt at Lenin’s tomb in Moscow indicates that he still subscribes to the view which he expressed in 1937 ‘that the Soviet system of economic planning is the best he knows of.’ ”

Mr Nash Immediately interjected: The member knows that statement is not correct. Mr J. B. Kent (Government, Westland): Smear. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holyoake) said the Prime Minister should withdraw his statement that Mr Eyre knew ! t was not correct.

Mr Fash: I said the statement that I knelt at Lenin’s tomb was incorrect, and the honourable member knows it is not correct Mr Eyre: I didn’t know it was incorrect

Mr Speaker asked the Prime Minister to withdraw, and Mr Nash did so. The Prime Minister’s recent overseas trip was the subject of two other Opposition questions today. Mr B. E. Tallboys (Wallace) asked Mr Nash if he was expressing the Government's view when he was reported from Kiev as saying after a three-hour conference with Mr Khrushchev: “His arguments are very strong. It is impossible to disprove them, and 11 know that millions of people want to follow the way he has shown them. I hope he will be victorious.”

Mr Tallboys also asked “whether the expressed hope for Khrushchev’s victory is shared by his colleagues.” Mr J. W. Scott (Rodney) asked Mr Nash if his statements on foreign affairs while overseas were made as the policy of the Government, the policy of the Labour Party, or his own personal opinions. Mr A. E. Allen (Franklin) asked the Prime Minister if he would tell the House when New Zealand's wedding gift to Princess Margaret was likely to be completed, and if it would be displayed in New Zealand before presentation. In a note to the question, he said New Zealand's wadding present to the Queen was ordered in 1947 and delivered in 1949.