Australian View Of War Attacked

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31375, 22 May 1967, Page 12

Australian View Of War Attacked

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BANGKOK, May 21.

Mr Lance Barnard, deputy leader of the Australian Opposition Labour Party, last night charged that Australia had been “extremely reluctant” to seek peace in South Vietnam.

Mr Barnard, who arrived in Bangkok earlier in the course of a study tour of South-east Asia, told reporters: “We say that the Australian Government has beeen extremely reluctant to consider negotiations. It has certainly failed to use its influence on the Americans to obtain negotiations.”

In this respect, he added, “the Australian Government has been more reactionary than the Americans.” But Mr Barnard admitted that he did not believe that the parties in the Vietnam war— North and South Vietnam—could be brought together to consider the questions involved. “What we should do is to bring about a successful conference between the North and the South,” he said. Mr Barnard said the Labour Party continued to oppose the sending of Australian troops to South Vietnam, but advocated civil aid for South Vietnam such as giving medical facilities.

Mr Barnard said he did not believe the Labour Party lost the last election because of its opposition to the Vietnam war but because of the feeling that Australia should not desert its allies.