The Press FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1971. A year that yielded no conclusions

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32803, 31 December 1971, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1971. A year that yielded no conclusions

The calendar does not conveniently define chapters in the history of the world; but the custom of stocktaking at the end of a year invites at least an attempt to characterise the events of the preceding 12 months, to weigh their consequences, and to see them in a wider perspective than is usually possible at the time of their happening. At the close of 1971 it must be acknowledged that the consequences of the most conspicuous shifts and changes in world affairs during the year are more than usually difficult to foresee.

For New Zealand, the event fraught with the greatest significance for the country’s future was of course the British decision to join the European Economic Community. From New Zealand’s point of view, the terms negotiated for Britain’s entry could hardly have been bettered —unless the member States, and Britain, were prepared to set aside principles governing their association and make quite quixotic sacrifices of their vital interests. Yet the outcome for New Zealand—and for Britain, for that matter—is by no means clear. In July President Nixon announced S is intention to visit Peking. This seemed to be the max of a long series of minor adjustments in the 'ttitude of the United States towards China; now the proposed visit seems to be only a first and tentative move towards finding a way to end differences between the American and Chinese Governments. China’s admission to the United Nations, desirable in almost every way except that it was at the expense of the expedient expulsion of Taiwan, has yet to be shown to be a significant step towards harmony between the great nations. When the principal trading countries of the “ free world ” reached a belated agreement to adjust their exchange rates the settlement was hailed, in the enthusiasm of the moment, as the end of the long and persisting international currency crisis: more sober appraisals see the settlement not so much as an end in itself as an opportunity for a new approach to fundamental world trading and economic problems. At least the evidence of a new willingness to give as well as to take encourages hopes that the opportunity will be grasped. Much to the surprise of students of world affairs, Britain and the Smith Government prepared an agreement on how to end their differences over the constitutional future of Rhodesia and the status of the African -majority. An essential part of the plan is that African opinion on the agreement must be tested. This remains to be done: and in the meantime the whole world will wait—anxiously, critically, or suspiciously—for an assurance that the, British Government has not in the proposed accord with the Smith Government retreated from the principle of unimpeded progress to majority rule. Another year of ugly conflict and ever-growing bitterness has brought no comfort to people of good will seeking desperately for a possible basis for a settlement in Northern Ireland. War between India and Pakistan after months of unrest and oppression in East Pakistan has only opened the prospect of more months—perhaps years —of ordeal for millions of people in that part of the world.

No-one would confidently suggest that another uneasy year punctuated by alarms, assassinations, and outbreaks of fighting has brought the Middle East any nearer to peace. In South Africa the Vorster Government at times seemed to be taking hesitant steps towards a new liberalism; but any hopes that it might be turning its back on a philosophy abhorred by virtually the whole civilised world have been dashed by other actions, as inflexible and doctrinaire as those that have given effect to the policy of apartheid in the past. The withdrawal of foreign troops from South Vietnam was not accompanied by any noticeable diminution of North Vietnamese or Viet Cong terrorism against South Vietnamese people wherever they had the power to inflict it. Nor, in the rest of Indo-China, has there been any sure sign that the war will end in the coming year. The year nevertheless was not devoid of events to raise hopes for a better future; it had its triumphs and its moments of great human achievement. A treaty banning the preparation or use of biological weapons was drafted; agreement was reached on the status of Berlin; in the closer approach to Mars, scientists and engineers reached new levels of achievement in space. But it was certainly not a year in which any of the major areas of political, economic, or social action produced satisfying or conclusive changes. The conflicts, the shifts in national policies, and the economic adjustments that have marked 1971 have left no signposts pointing unmistakably to what the coming year holds for the world.