Quakers question Minister’s remarks

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32678, 6 August 1971, Page 6

Quakers question Minister’s remarks

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Christchurch has written to the Minister of Defence (Mr Thomson) seeking clarification on comments made by the Minister in an address to the University of Otago Political Science Society, reported last Saturday.

In his address Mr Thomson said New Zealanders should think deeply about their own strategic situation in the world before supporting causes which could only undercut key national objectives.

The Society’s Clerk (Dr W. S. Metcalf) told the Minister in his letter that The Religious Society of Friends begged to be permitted to make their position clear. “We agree that slogans may well be misleading, can be dangerous, and should never be used as a substitute for deep thought. We do however wish to stress to you that in our opposition to the Indo-China war, and in our conviction that the cessation of United States and allied intervention is a necessary condition for peace in IndoChina, we are not being influenced by the ‘powerful opiate’ of any simple slogan. r

"Our conscience in this matter is the result of deeply held convictions and a careful consideration of information coming from many sources but more especially from Quakers who have for years been deeply involved with the Vietnamese people. Much of this information has been confirmed by reports from recent New Zealand delegations to Vietnam, and by the Pentagon papers," the letter reads.

“We would be grateful to have from you a clear statement of ‘key national objectives* which, you claim, ‘are being undercut’ You will appreciate that we feel bound to question seriously a policy which has used defoliation, herbicides, and indiscriminate

bombing, with the result that a peasant people have suffered slaughter and maiming. disruption of their social life and devastation of their land,” Dr Metcalf says.