‘No Alternative’ To Vietnam War

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31366, 11 May 1967, Page 3

‘No Alternative’ To Vietnam War

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 10.

Sir Leslie Munro (Nat., Waipa) said in Parliament today that a long war was sometimes necessary in the interests of humanity.

Before the House was Sir Leslie Munro’s motion commending the Government’s actions in support of the defence of South Vietnam against aggression, and deprecating the continuing attitude of the Labour Party. The allies had no alternative but to continue to fight, he said.

He said two members of the other side of the House—the Labour Party president, Mr N. V. Douglas (Auckland Central) and Sir Basil Arthur (Lab., Timaru) —might approve the motion. “Why is our stand criticised by pallid members of the Left,” he said. The resolution before the House condemned such pusillanimity, he said. Mr A. J. Faulkner (Lab., Roskill) moved an amendment asking “that this House calls upon the Government to adopt the Labour Party policy of removing the causes of conflict by the removal of poverty, pestilence and illiteracy through increasing substantially medical, technical, agricultural, educational and trade aid to the South-east Asian area.” Mr Faulkner said the Government’s move to introduce a member’s private motion on foreign affairs was a basis for diversion from the economic muddle the country was in.

He said the Labour Party disliked both Communist and military dictatorship and to say that the Communist countries benefited from the Labour Party attitude was to mistake the facts. He said the real war in South-east Asia was on poverty and not on people, as the member for Waipa would have it. Mr C. J. Moyle (Lab., Manukau) said that the Government could claim no mandate for its increased commitment in Vietnam. “At no time during the election campaign did the Government indicate it would increase New Zealand troops to Vietnam.” Mr Moyle said New Zealand’s commitment in Vietnam gave it a duty to rebuild what had been destroyed. The Minister of Defence (Mr Thomson) said that “before construction of the country, someone has to carry out the bloody job of meeting force with, force. “The war in South Vietnam is a conflict in which the luxury of standing on the sidelines or picking and choosing our kind of assistance is reserved for those who in the last resort do not really care about the outcome,” he said.