‘Clock Of Europe Turned Back’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 1

‘Clock Of Europe Turned Back’

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 21.

The invasion of Czechoslovakia is the most depressing news New Zealanders have heard for many years, according to the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake).

In a strongly-worded statement condemning the action of the Warsaw Pact Powers, he said the clock in Europe had been turned back to the darkest days of the Cold War and recalled the brutal suppression of freedom in Hungary’.

“It is quite incomprehensible to me that the Soviet leaders should be unaware of the deep revulsion which their actions will provoke throughout the world.” The Prime Minister said the latest Soviet move was in direct conflict with its utterances over the years reaffirming the principle of sovereign equality among independent states. “The Czechs were, of course, justified when they accused the Soviet Union of a violation of international law,” continued Mr Holyoake. He was dismayed that the Soviet Union could countenance such a flagrant use of force in transgression of all accepted principles. “In New Zealand we may appear to be far removed from the sad drama of Prague,” he continued. “In the world of today, however, these events reach out to affect the wider search for world peace to which we are all. committed. “It is beyond me to see

how such action will help us forward to a new international era

“I am dismayed to think that such counsels can prevail in a modern State which sets itself up as a model for others to follow,” said the Prime Minister.

Mr Holyoake said he believed that many people in New Zealand and elsewhere were inspired by the attempts of Mr Dubcek’s Government to bring Czechoslovakia a more liberal version of communism.

At no point did he threaten to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact alliance with the Soviet Union, yet he was confronted from the outset with a series of military threats from Czechoslovakia’s powerful neighbour.

“As so often in its short history, the Czech nation responded with courage and dignity, and insisted on the right to order its own internal affairs,” he said. “We could only admire this stand, and last month it appeared that an honourable accommodation had been reached at Cierna and Bratislava.” The Prime Minister said that throughout the confrontation the countries of the West were true to their principles and scrupulously stood aside from this internal dispute in the Communist camp.