A.N.Z.U.S. “Guarantee Of N.Z. Security”

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 12

A.N.Z.U.S. “Guarantee Of N.Z. Security”

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 31.

The Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs (Mr Holyoake) will be assisted by the. Minister of Defence (Mr Eyre) at the meeting of the A.N.Z.U.S. Council in Wellington next Wednesday and Thursday.

Releasing details of the meeting today, Mr Holyoake said he would also be assisted by senior officers of the Department of External Affairs and the service chiefs of staff.

The A.N.Z.U.S. sessions will be held in the Cabinet rooms of Parliament Buildings. Australia will be represented by Sir Garfield Barwick, the Minister of External Affairs, and the United States by Mr Averell Harriman, UnderSecretary of State.

Mr Holyoake said: “New Zealand sets great store by its close ties and alliances with friendly countries and especially with Britain. Australia. and the United States

“We are not strong enough to defend ourselves unaided ’.’e need friends and we are fortunate in our friends. In t -e various inter - locking alliances and arrangements of which we are members— AJI.Z.V.S. A.NZ.A.M, and

S.E AT.O.—and also in the United Nations—we find the best guarantee of our own security and the best hope of developing in due course the sort of all-embracing collective security system which will ensure peace and stability throughout the world.” Mr Holyoake added that he had found the Canberra meeting of the council in May. 1962, of the greatest value and that he was Looking forward equally to stimulating and helpful discussions next week.

The A.N.Z.IJS. Council was not a body from which spectacular resolutions or decisions should be expected, he said. It was primarily a, forum in which three countries with full confidence in each other and with common ideals and objectives could exchange views without reserve.

Mr Holyoake said the Treaty, which was signed at San Francisco on September 1, 1961, expressed

nothing radically new in the relationship of die three participants, but formalised an existing close relationship and enabled periodic discussion of common problems at a ministerial level. The treaty formally associated New Zealand and Australia with the United States and gave a firm assurance of American support in the event of aggression in the Pacific. It was purely a defensive arrangement of the three parties, consistent with United Nations principles and the obligations which the United Nations Charter laid upon its members. The keynote of A.N.Z.UJS. was that each party recognised “that am armed attack in the Pacific area on any of the parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declared that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes.”