Mr Holyoake Backs Force In Vietnam

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30794, 5 July 1965, Page 1

Mr Holyoake Backs Force In Vietnam

(N Z P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

TOKYO, July 4.

China was not interested in peace talks on Vietnam because of its belief that the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong would win the war, Mr Holyoake, the New Zealand Prime Minister said today.

Because of this attitude it was necessary to uphold the present United States policy in Vietnam to demonstrate to the Communists that they could not win the war or impose a dictatorship by force, he said.

Addressing a nation-wide television audience, Mr Holyoake said that every attempt so far made to bring about peace negotiations by the United States, the British Government as co-chairman of the Geneva Conference and by the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ peace mission had been rejected by China. “This is not good,” he said. “This is an intractable situation, an intractable stand which I don’t think any Government particularly interested in Vietnam should adopt.”

“This war could escalate into a wide conflict, and I think it is a sign of weakness when a Government will not even agree to discuss these questions.” “Forced By Conflict”

Mr Holyoake, who reached Tokyo last Wednesday on an official seven-day visit to Japan, told an interviewer on

the television programme, taped on Thursday and broadcast today, that the Communists must be forced by conflict into negotiating a peaceful settlement. The New Zealand leader said his Government had decided to assist the South Vietnamese against the wave of Communist aggression in the same vein as it had, and was still helping, repel Communist guerrillas in Malaysia. It had always been New Zealand's attitude to adhere to the United Nations Charter to assist a friendly nation threatened by aggression when the dispute could not be immediately settled by peaceful methods. “At the present time we have, I think, about 1700 Army, Navy and Air Force troops in Malaysia to help halt the crush Malaysia policy of Indonesia’s President Sukarno.

“Malaysia has a population of only a fraction of Indonesia’s 100 million people, and does not constitute a threat to Indonesia. We believe they have the right to call on their friends to assist in their defence. The same basic thinking goes for South Vietnam,” Mr Holyoake said. Common Task

Mr Holyoake said that Japan and New Zealand had a common task in contributing to the prosperity and stability of all of Asia.

He pledged to work, as he said he knew the Japanese Government would, towards “a common interest, a common approach to Asian problems, and a common solution in interests of all the people who love peace and independence in and around the Pacific basin."

“I believe, even though we cannot perhaps join militarily, because of your consti-

tutional difficulties in settling some of these problems, we can join politically in the United Nations.

“Your agreements with some other countries and our agreements with those same countries can foster a common objective.” Mr Holyoake said that although many people thought of Japan and New Zealand being separated by 6000 miles of water, “I like to think instead we are joined together by 6000 miles of water.” He called for more cultural exchange and more trade between both countries. “Even now the two-way trade is growing to bring us closer together,” the Prime Minister said.