Fuller Use Of Dept’s Services Urged

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 12

Fuller Use Of Dept’s Services Urged

Greater use could be made of the information services available from the Department of External Affairs, the Secretary of External Affairs (Mr G. R. Laking), said in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Laking, who was speaking at the annual conference of the National Council of Churches, said that during the recent controversy on the Omega issue only one person, a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, had asked the department for information on the subject. “If anybody had asked, the whole file was available,” Mr Laking said. Although there were a few subjects which, for security or other reasons, could not be discussed by the department, there were many subjects, especially on foreign policy. In which the department was a “mine of information.”

Asked by the Rev. M. A. McDowell, chairman of the Christchurch Committee on Vietnam, about New Zealand’s involvement in the Vietnam war, Mr Laking said that as it was the policy of the United States to seek a political settlement to the war, and as New Zealand was involved with the United States over Vietnam, New Zealand was also committed to seeking a political solution to the war.

“Don’t forget, It was the Americans who instigated the Paris peace talks and they have shown all the initiative towards a political settle, ment,” Mr Laking said. Mr Laking said there was an excessive preoccupation in New Zealand with the possibility of nuclear war in the country. There were many more pressing needs to which energies could be devoted. “Both within the United Nations and outside, we need to develop the capacity to think and act for ourselves,” he said. “Above all, we must be prepared to adapt to change, to make the practical dispositions and adjustments that the attainment of our security requires.” Most New Zealanders held firm, even didactic, views on the problems of other countries, but when they came to consider in what ways and to what extent these problems were relevant to their own interests, they were often less certain of the position. There needed to be rational debate on the subject of foreign affairs, and it was the business of the department to provide the facts, Mr Laking said. “There is room also for the

encouragement of closer relations with the press. The technique of background briefing is well developed In many centres such as Washington and London. They are governed by a set of wellrecognised conventions which permits frank exchanges without compromising the position or responsibilities of either party. “We all accept that our future is increasingly bound up with that of Asia. We all acknowledge that. New Zea. land must find a way to live peacefully and in partnership with its neighbours. Our relationship with Asia will involve much hard work, considerable skill and understanding if we are to do more than stand on the side-line watching the world change around us," Mr Laking said. If New Zealand policies were to be realistic, it would have to be realised that Asia would be greatly different in future. “The Vietnam war cannot continue indefinitely,and sooner or later there -will be a political change with far-reaching implications.”