Mr Smith's Commonwealth

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31341, 11 April 1967, Page 3

Mr Smith 's Commonwealth

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 10. Inter-regional and Commonwealth developments, with Britain entering the Common Market, and New Zealand having ties with Australia and South Pacific countries, were not incompatible and need not disrupt the family Commonwealth, the Commonwealth Secre-tary-General (Mr Arnold Smith) said In Auckland today at the start of a week’s tour of New Zealand.

“If Britain decided to apply to enter the Common Market, and if it is accepted, then

if this Increases the prosperity of Britain it will be in the interests of the Commonwealth and the world,” said Mr Smith.

One of the big dangers for the future world was a retreat into merely regional horizons. The Commonwealth could help to overcome this. “It seems to me that New Zealand, through its diplomacy, has had and I hope will have, an influence out of all proportion to its size," said Mr Smith. If New Zealand could afford to make its diplomatic service larger, it could play a larger part in world affairs. Mr Smith said that an

article in “The Times” de dared that New Zealanders were no longer interested in the modern multi-racial Commonwealth. “I hope that this statement is not true,” he said. If it was it was based on a misconception of the role of the Commonwealth.

Public Thanked. —The public are thanked for supporting the recent appeal for clocks for the Templeton Hospital and Training School, says a letter from the Friends of the Hospital. The letter says it was a big effort, but the response made it most gratifying and worth while.