N.Z. TROOPS FOR VIETNAM Parliament Should Decide—Nordmeyer

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30740, 3 May 1965, Page 1

N.Z. TROOPS FOR VIETNAM Parliament Should Decide—Nordmeyer

C.Vcu’ Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 2.

Before any decision was made to involve New Zealand in hostilities in South Vietnam Parliament should have the opportunity of discussion and be informed of the grounds on which the Government was committing New Zealand, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nordmeyer) said today. If the Government had received information which justified sending combatant units to South Vietnam that information should also be made fully available to the people’s representatives in Parliament, Mr Nordmeyer said.

Apart from the danger of involving New Zealand in a military conflict, which large sections of public opinion inside and outside New Zealand had condemned, it must not be overlooked that New Zealand was already heav--1 ily committed in Malaysia, in whose defence she ha<jl undertaken to participate, he said. Dispatch of her limited forces to yet another theatre must inevitably seriously weaken her capacity to play her proper part in Malaysia as part of the Commonwealth. “While fully recognising the desire of the Americans that others should share in their task of holding Communism in South Vietnam the entry of

further nations into the conflict on the American side could become an excuse for other nations to participate on the other side,” Mr Nordmeyer said. “The danger of this conflict in Vietnam escalating into a third world war can't be ignored.”

Sooner or later the future of Vietnam must be decided around the conference tables. The sooner this took

place the better, Mr Nordmeyer said. “Increasing the military forces in the area will not hasten a decision. It may only delay it. “There can be no military solution to the complex problems of Vietnam and the sooner this is recognised by both sides the better it wil be for the unhappy people o that country,” he said.