NUCLEAR DEFENCE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30271, 25 October 1963, Page 13

NUCLEAR DEFENCE

Attitude Of Labour

(N.Z Press Assn.—Copyright) CHICAGO. Oct. 23 Britain will adopt “a more realistic attitude" toward nuclear defence if the Labour Party defeats the Conservatives in the General Election, the deputy-leader of the Labour Party. Mr George Brown, said today. United Press International reported. Mr Brown said Britain should not continue “to maintain this illusion of an independent nuclear power when we are heavily dependent on the United Stales for delivery vehicles."

He spoke to reporters at the opening of the ninth national conference of the United States National Commission for U N E SC O. "We believe the so-called British independent nuclear deterrent ceased to be in any sense independent When we stopped producing our own rocket.” Mr Brown said. “We then became dependent on you (the United States).” The climate now was not right to try to resume negotiations for Britain’s entry into the Common Market, he said. “But we can try to get co-operation on specific issues” with members of the Common Market to reach a satisfactory climate. Mr Brown said it was “impossible to say” when elections would take place in Britain because this depended “to what extent tensions exist in the Conservative Party.”