LONDON TALKS Mr Nash Asked At Last Minute

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29909, 24 August 1962, Page 12

LONDON TALKS Mr Nash Asked At Last Minute

(From Out Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, August 23.

The decision by the Government to ask the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nash) to go to London while the Comonwealth Prime Ministers discuss the E.E.C. negotiations was apparently a last-minute move after it was learned Mr Nash was considering a visit to London at the invitation of the Leader of the British Labour Party (Mr Gaitskell).

Mr Nash has accepted the invitation to talks with Mr Gaitskell and other Commonwealth Labour leaders, expected to be held before the Prime Ministers confer from September 10. Mr Nash said tonight that he would also be pleased to see any other Labour leaders he thought it necessary to see while in Britain. The invitation extended by the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) to Mr Nash yesterday, and formally announced in the House of Representatives today, does not mean that Mr Nash becomes a member of the official party. But it does mean that he will be on hand in London throughout the conference and thus remain longer than he originally planned. In the House today, the Prime Minister said that it had been the practice for many years for the Leader of the Opposition to have access to confidential cables and information affecting external relations and this had been continued over recent

weeks since “nothing could be more important in the external sphere than the difficult problems arising from the possible entry of Britain into the Common Market.”

Mr Holyoake said that he would continue to keep Mr Nash fully informed in London and consult fully with him on . i.E.C. questions. He emphasised that Mr Nash would be entirely free to arrive at his own conclusions and to express his own views on the Common Market questions. “My Own Thinking”

Mr Nash replied that he was hoping a decision on the Common Market “will be made by the United Kingdom that will not interfere with the prosperity of our country and other countries of the Commonwealth What I say will be from my own thinking and I hope it will be helpful to New Zealand and helpful to Britain.” He said later that while in London he would be putting the official Labour Party point of view. “On the present evidence, so far made public, it does not appear that the Labour Party could support Britain going into the Common Market. But it is Britain's decision.” said Mr Nash.

Mr Nash has not been given any brief for his London meetings by the Federation of Labour in New Zealand, although he said tonight that, if requested, there could be a meeting between Labour leaders before he left Wellington. He will fly to San Francisco on September 1, a day before the official party leaves with the Prime Minister. After a rest stop at San Francisco he will fly by the Polar route to London where he expects to arrive on September 5 or 6. The expenses of his tour will now presumably be charged to the Government.

The Leader of the Australian Labour Party (Mr Caldwell) was earlier invited to accompany the Australian Prime Minister’s party to London He. too, will meet Mr Gaitskell and other Socialist leaders from the Commonwealth and the Common Market countries.

Interviewed tonight. Mr Nash declined to reveal the kind of amendments to the conditions of Britain’s entry he would like to see “But I do not think she should enter on the present conditions as published,” he said.