M.P.s ‘Misinterpreted’ Consul’s Remarks

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32308, 28 May 1970, Page 16

M.P.s ‘Misinterpreted’ Consul’s Remarks

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 27. The four Maori Members of Parliament had misinterpreted a comment he made recently, the South African Consul-General (Mr P. H. Philip) said in a statement today.

“The comment in question was, as reported by the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, that the cultural gulf between Maori and pakeha in New Zealand was narrower than that between black and white in South Africa, consequently the former could be bridged, while’ the latter could not. “The members of Parliament in question, Mrs T. W. M. Tirikatene-Sullivan (Lab., Southern Maori), Mr M. Rata

(Lab., Northern Maori), Mr P. B. Reweti (Lab., Eastern Maori), and Mr K. T. Wetere (Lab., Western Maori), appear to have regarded this remark as an insult towards the African people,” Mr Philip said.

“There was no such slight intended towards a people for whom I have the highest esteem. “Since I value the opinion of the lady and the gentlemen concerned, I would like |to make my position clear in this regard,” the ConsulGeneral said. “I might easily have said that the cultural gulf between the Germans and Australians was narrower than that between Germans and Frenchmen. No exception would have been taken to that remark. Nor would anybody have interpreted it as an attempt to disparage one or other of the. nations mentioned. So it is in the case of my comment. “I have consistently maintained in my various talks on South Africa during the ]last vear (28 to be exact) ! that we in South Africa recognise differences between the (communities which make up lour population, but that we ido not recognise’ degrees of (inferiority or superiority between those communities. “Each community has the right, and indeed the duty, to feel pride in its own identity, and in its own culture and history. “This precept applies to all the races concerned, and it is i basic to the policy of sepai rate development,” Mr Philip said.