P.M. Addresses U.N. On Position With China

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32099, 22 September 1969, Page 24

P.M. Addresses U.N. On Position With China

(N,Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) NEW YORK, September 21. The United Nations was increasingly faced with the need to come to terms with a situation where a quarter of the world’s population remained unrepresented in the United Nations, the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

In a thirty-minute speech, and without naming Communist China, he said that the effectiveness of the United Nations was impaired by “a gap of this magnitude.”

“We are all aware of the difficulties of resolving this problem. But there must soon come a point when the balance of advantage requires that this be done in spite of these immediate and long-term difficulties,” he said. The New Zealand statement was one of eight delivered in

the General Assembly today. Dealing with the present situation in the Middle East, the Prime Minister said there were two aspects which gave his Government “special concern.” It would be horrifying and intolerable if the dispute between Israel and her Arab neighbours were to spawn calculated terror throughout the world.

“No reasonable person can accept the hijacking of civi-

lian airliners, and the destruction of property, with the ever-present threat of loss of innocent lives, in countries far removed from the Middle East.” This kind of activity was bound to recoil on the heads of the organisations responsible for it Another aspect which would be particularly unhelpful would be any attempt to deliberately arouse or inflame religious feelings as a means of heightening tensions and hatred. Mr Holyoake also dealt at some length with Vietnam and urged “a close and searching inquiry” as to whether the United Nations Charter

was adequate to deal with the problems of today. There was a good attendance on the floor of the huge Assembly buildings for the Prime Minister’s speech. Trouble Spots Mr Holyoake in turn dealt with the two other major trouble spots in the world — Nigeria and Vietnam. Referring to Nigeria, he said that an effort should be made to separate the humanitarian crisis from the political aspects of “this bloody conflict”

Urgency should be given to the immediate resumption of large-scale relief supplies. “My Government has made recent direct representations on this specific issue. The international community has a duty to speak out on behalf of the innocent civilian victims of the fighting,” said the Prime Minister. Stating the New Zealand Government’s “earnest desire” for a peaceful settlement to the Vietnam war which would allow the South Vietnamese to decide their own future without outside interference, Mr Holyoake said: “It is a matter of great regret that the United Nations has been able to play so little a part in relation to the Vietnam war. “There have been times when international opinion, carefully and responsibly expressed, might have helped shape progress towards peace in Vietnam. That opportunity remains.

“In particular, the international community needs to be reminded of the steps that the Republic of South Vietnam has taken in the cause of peace.” Western Samoa New and more flexible arrangements were needed for admitting the very small emerging territories to the United Nations. Referring to his country’s experience in the Pacific with Western Samoa and the Cook Islands, he pointed out that they were offered Only the alternatives of full United Nations membership or no relationship at all. He welcomed the decision of the Security Council to establish a committee of experts which would examine the relationship between the micro-States and the United Nations and added that the New Zealand Government awaited with interest the result of the council’s examination of “this important question.”