Mr Agnew’s Visit
Sir.—l was amazed and not amused by today’s report of the Press Association interview with Police Commissioner Urquhart regarding security precautions for VicePresident Spiro Agnew. Mr Urquhart is stated to have said the police would not be armed and it was “their own affair” if the American Security men were armed. Surely Mr Urquhart and Mr Scott have read the Arms Act lately as they used it to cover their infamous raids to take Leftwing propaganda away during Secretary Rogers’s 1969 visit. Perhaps Mt Urquhart can advise what the 1958 Arms Act, Section six, means to him. To me it means no person can bring firearms into New Zealand except with a permit from a commissioned police officer. Have the American agents a permit? If not, then Commissioner Urquhart is condoning an illegal act and becomes unfit to hold his position.—Yours, etc., M. O’NEILL.
January 13, 1970. [The Commissioner of Police (Mr G. C. Urquhart) replies: “As indicated in the letter I have power under the Arms Act to allow firearms to be imported into this country. 1 did exercise this power in respect of the VicePresident’s bodyguard.”]
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Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 12
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191Mr Agnew’s Visit Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 12
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