MR KIRK ‘WOULD LEI VIET CONG WIN'

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 22

MR KIRK ‘WOULD LEI VIET CONG WIN'

(New Zealand Preee Aeeociation) WELLINGTON, Dec. 20. The effect of the Vietnam policy outlined today by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) could be to let the Viet Cong aggressors and terrorists win the war in the vain hope some means of peaceful settlement “might just turn up in the meantime,” the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) said tonight.

“Mr Kirk’s state* meat that New Zealand troops should be with* drawn from Vietnam—and then perhaps go back in a peace-keeping force—was like refusing to help a drowning man till he was either drowned or rescued by somebody else,” Mr Holyoake said. “It completely sidesteps the vital fact that New Zealand troops are in Vietnam to try to restore the peace,” Mr Holyoake Mid. Mr Holyoake Mid the people of South Vietnam were victims of aggression by Corn-

munist North Vietnam and had sought New Zeeland’s help under the Manila Treaty. “How would Mr Kirk have responded to this international obligation? “I would have thought this wag the very type of international peace-restoring operation which the Labour Party would have supported. “The policeman keeping the peace and maintaining law and order has to resist assault and make arrests as well as pound the beat." Mr Holyoake Mid New Zealand sought nothing more than a just, negotiated settlement “This has been demonstrated repeatedly by us and our allies—particularly President Johnson of the United States.

“But it will not eventuate until Communist North Vietnam takes the same view," he Mid. The Prime Minister said North Vietnam would not negotiate until It was convinced it could not win the war by military means. “Mr Kirk’s statement that he would bring our troops home was particularly regrettable because it could affect the morale of our men in Vietnam who are fighting and risking their lives to help bring peace in Vietnam—but apparently not in a way to suit Mr Kirk. “His statement also overlooked the fact that our commitment in Vietnam has been debated and decided in Parliament,” Mr Holyoake said.