New Defence Plan Urged

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 18

New Defence Plan Urged

(N.Z.P.A.’Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, Oct 12. A British Conservative politician, Mr Victor Goodhew, yesterday urged the inclusion of South Africa in a new world defence system, either by extending the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or through a South Atlantic group linked with N.A.T.O.

Such a grouping might inBritain and North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, he said. “In effect, I want to take the letter ‘N’ out of N.A.T.O. and, make it just a plain Atlantic Treaty Organisation,” Mr Goodhew said, adding that the presence of Soviet Uninn naval forces in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean posed a threat to N.A.T.O. countries on the European side of the Atlantic.

Mr Goodhew has just returned from a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa, during which he made visits to Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Transkei. Speaking to a Brighton audience, he said that constant attacks op South Africa by Communists and their sympathisers were a red herring which deflected attention from the vital position South Africa occupied in the world. Any differences between South Africa and the remainder of the West paled into insignificance compared with the problems of world security, he said.