Protests To Mrs De Gaulle

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 2

Protests To Mrs De Gaulle

In the hope that Mrs Yvonne de Gaulle (wife of President de Gaulle) may be able to influence her husband to halt the proposed French nuclear tests in the South Pacific, members of the Women for Peace movement in Christchurch are writing individual letters to her.

At a special letter-writing meeting of Women for Peace yesterday, a number of members wrote letters, and others unable to attend will write from their homes.

Mrs de Gaulle’s postal address caused some discussion, but it was eventually decided that "Paris, France.” would reach her. To be certain, however, some letters will be sent to her care of a children’s home which khe founded in memory of her daughter, who died in 1945, the Anne de Gaulle Foundation for Backward Children. Mrs Phyl Wardell, a Christchurch author of children’s books, attended the meeting to put forward suggestions about the form the letters should take. A specimen letter she had prepared as a guide read: “We, the women of New Zealand, are greatly concerned about the forthcoming French nuclear tests in the Pacific. Especially we fear the effect of radiation on our children, their children, and for generations to come. “We have read, madame, of your great compassion toward children, and were particularly interested in the Anne de Gaulle Foundation for Backward Children, which you have founded. Because of this we feel you will be sympathetic towards our anxieties for the children of New Zealand and other countries in the Pacific, and

we pray that you will use all your influence in trying to stop the tests.” A further letter, addressed to the French Ambassador to New Zealand, requesting him to urge his Govemmeent to reconsider the proposed teste, has been written by the women, and was signed by aM at the meeting. It will be sent to all members on the movement’s mailing list, for further uignaturea to be affixed. “As women closely involved with the well-being of young people now growing up to this country, we share with

our Pacific neighbours a deep concern at France’s proposed nuclear tests in this area,” the letter said. The letter to the French Ambassador was written at the suggestion of a leading committee member of the Union of French Women, in reply to a letter by the Christchurch Women for Peace. New Zealand women were right to be troubled about the testa the French Government intended to carry out, the French woman wrote. “We are also indignant that Presid e nt de Gaulle not only refused to sign the Test Ban Treaty, but announced new teste ait the same time,” she said. Outlining the attempts of the organisation to ban teste, she said members sent delegations and petitions to the President, and took part in public meetings started by their own or similar organisations. In May, 50,000 persons gathered to take part in a disarmament demonstration in Paris. To celebrate the International Day of Women this year, 50,000 women in 800 towns throughout France had met to keep “vigils for peace.” She suggested that, in writing to the French Ambassador, the Women for Peace should ask him to communicate indignation and opposition of the whole population of New Zealand. “Once every woman in every country will have become conscious of her own responsibility, then no president or general will dare to start a war, nor even poison one small landscape . . she wrote.