Conservatives United On Defence

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31018, 25 March 1966, Page 14

Conservatives United On Defence

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, March 24. The British Conservative Party was today apparently united behind a national defence policy which reconciled the calls on one wing for more arms and the demands on the other for a withdrawal from commitments east of Suez.

The man who produced the answer was the former Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home who did the same job for his party at its annual conference in Brighton last year. i With less than a week of i electioneering to go before the | March 31 polling day, the ' party spokesman of defence, i Mr Enoch Powell was on record as saying that Britain should pull back her forces east of Suez. a The party leader, Mr Ed®ward Heath, and other spea- ' kcrs have attacked the ruling jßfcabour Party’s cuts in despending. ■ Asked about the two views .•‘.last night Sir Alec Douglas--Home told a meeting at Welljgjugton, Shropshire, that there 'Was no rift in the ConservaMHve Party on the issue. if But Sir Alec Douglas-Home I—bit that Britain should have Up presence east of Suez. The ■presence, he said, should be a Naval task force with an faircraft carrier. ■ The Naval force, he said “would “give confidence to New ' Zealand and Australia and S other Commonwealth coun- ® tries that we are there if ref quired.” When Sir Alec DouglasHome turned from defence to economics his views on Conservative policy gave Australia and New Zealand less reason for confidence.

Import control was the only imposed to limit the inflow of food into Britain, he said. Minimum prices should be fixed so that overseas farmers selling on the British market would have their prices pushed high enough to protect the British farmers.

Import control was the only way to gain room for expansion from the British farms, he told his largely rural audience.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s speech came at a time when

opinion polls were showing his party still trailing in an apparently hopeless position behind Labour.

The party leader, Mr Heath, told voters last night: “Wake up. If you make the wrong decision now it may be five years before you get a chance to put it right. “We must get rid of Mr Wilson and his fatal Government.”

The Prime Minister, Mr Wilson was asked on television what he could do to “uplift” the election campaign which has been described as “a yawn,” “tawdry,” and “a morass of mediocrity. Mr Wilson replied: “Already I think a number of us have made very serious speeches. I’ve made a number myself, about, for example Britain’s place in the world, disarmament, the war against poverty, and about the kind of Britain we want to see.”