‘Frightening Inhumanity’ Of Chinese Policy

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30190, 23 July 1963, Page 17

‘Frightening Inhumanity ’ Of Chinese Policy

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 22. There was a frightening inhumanity in an attitude that could contemplate or welcome the horrors of thermonuclear war, but that was the attitude of Mao Tse-tung and the leaders of Communist China today, the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) told delegates at this evening’s session of the National Party annual conference. •

Mr Holyoake said that China had proclaimed that she had nothing to lose by a nuclear war and, indeed, that she had something to gain. “There are 600 million of them and that is a very considerable section of the world’s people,” he said.

The leaders at the Soviet people had quite vehemently rejected China's ideological «-proach, said the Prime Minister.

Mr Khrushchev had shown an awareness of the dangers of the threat of the outcome of a nuclear war. He had shown that in connexion with the Cuba incident.

‘Pravda” had quoted Mr Khrushchev as saying a new civilisation could not be built on the corpses of hundreds of millions of people, said Mr Holyoake. * The growing imperialism of China made it more urgent ■hat the free nations and Russia should make the present nuclear test ban talks a success.

Mr Holyoake said that in the view of President Kennedy, there were no European problems or American prcblems. but only world problems. ‘‘The world's problems are New Zealand's problems too,” the Prime Minister said.

“Whether we like it or not, we are getting increasingly involved in the wider issues of the world,” he said. Mr Holyoake referred to the talks going on “in close secrecy” between Russia and China on ideological questions. “It is plain that the Soviet and China are bitterly divided on- issues of basic policy and Communist ideology,” he said.

“It seems very unlikely that the gap will be bridged. There is the prospect of the Communist world being split right down the centre. ‘The fact that Mr Khrushchev is taking part in the test ban talks gives us reason for real hope. We hope that there will at least be a partial ban to prohibit tests in the air, under the water and'in outer space,” he said. ‘T don’t know why nations want to retain the right to test underground. They can’t be detected. The best thing would be the cessation of all testing,” said the Prime Minister. “We and all the rest of the peoples in the world would then lose the fear from possible fall-out,” he said. Referring to the intention of France to test nuclear weapons in the South Pacific in a few years, Mr Holyoake said: “This has come much closer to us. We will treat the question with the greattest importance. We will lose no opportunity to bring our weight to bear on the side of the Western nations striving to have a cessation of nuclear testing and general disarmament.”