WILSON TO ADDRESS U.N.

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30934, 15 December 1965, Page 21

WILSON TO ADDRESS U.N.

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) NEW YORK, Dec. 14. The British Prime Minister, Mr Wilson, will fly to New York tomorrow to address the United Nations, where his government’s policies are being severely criticised.

It will be his first visit to the United Nations as Premier. Mr Wilson is due to address the General Assembly at 4 a.m. Friday, New Zealand time.

London reports said he Is also considering appearing before the Security Council, which is expected to be debating the Rhodesia crisis. If so, he will be the first head of a member government to address the 11-nation Security Council, which Kenya has asked to invoke mandatory sanctions against the Rhodesian regime. The London reports said Mr Wilson might make a progress

report on measures being discussed internationally to place an embargo on the shipment of oil to Rhodesia, on top of the economic and financial restrictions already ordered. There is wide dissatisfaction, particularly among African and Asian members, with

Britain’s handling of the Rhodesian problem. Some have said Britain would have responded with much more vigour and determination if the revolt had been by other than a white settler administration.

After his Assembly speech, Mr Wilson is to confer with the United Nations SecretaryGeneral, U Thant, then leave

for Washington for talks with President Johnson and other Administration leaders.

Mr Wilson’s Assembly address is expected to cover most of the problems currently of concern to Britain and the United Nations. It is considered inevitable that much of it will have to do with the Rhodesian situation. Other areas of interest include British efforts to get negotiations going for a settlement of the Vietnam conflict, the problems of United Nations peace-keeping and the financing of such operations, disarmament—particularly in the context of nuclear nonproliferation—and decolonisation.

Mr Wilson has repeatedly expounded his Government’s

attachment to the United Nations. But the tone of much of the debate at this Assembly session has been hostile to Britain. This is principally because the British remain the world’s leading colonial power. About half of the United Nations membership are States that have attained nationhood since the war and for which the vestiges of colonialism are still the world’s most pressing problem. The closeness of the alliance between London and Washington, which some members consider as a factor inhibiting Britain’s role as an independent conciliator, has also been cited against the Government.