Menzies Finds Views Backed

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 19

Menzies Finds Views Backed

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, April 28. The overwhelming majority of Australians agreed with the Australian and American attitude on Vietnam, the Prime Minister (Sir Robert Menzies) told Parliament today.

“I haven’t the faintest doubt of this,” he said in reply to a question by Dr. J. F. Cairns (Labour, Victoria). Mr Henry Cabot Lodge, President Johnson’s special envoy, who recently visited Australia, had no requests to make of the Australian Government concerning Vietnam, Sir Robert Menzies said.

Dr. Cairns had asked Sir Robert Menzies if Mr Lodge’s visit was arranged by the Government so as he would be sheltered by contact with any opinion opposing official oolicy on Vietnam. “Will the Prime Minister say whether Mr Lodge was ■nformed here there were a substantial number in Australia who opposed official policy in Vietnam?” he asked Replying, Sir Robert

Menzies said: “When Mr Lodge arrived here he presented me with a letter from President Johnson introducing him as the special representative.

“We had been warned on the official level he would be coming—and we were delighted to see him. “He came here not to conduct some political inquiry but to exchange views with us about Vietnam and about the position in South-east Asia generally. Sir Robert Menzies added he did not see, if Mr Lodge were here for only a few hours, why he should suggest the envoy should meet a lot of other people.