Mr Muldoon attacks defence spending opponents

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33066, 6 November 1972, Page 1

Mr Muldoon attacks defence spending opponents

Communists, some fellow politicians and some other New Zealanders were described as “traitors to their country” by the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) in Christchurch at the week-end.

This was part of a strong attack he made on those who consider that the Government is spending too much on defence.

Mr Muldoon made his comments while addressing the final reunion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade Association on Saturday evening. Police were outside the Horticultural Hall during the dinner but there were no demonstrators. In his tribute to the survivors of the brigade, Mr Muldoon referred to those who believe that defence of New Zealand is something unnecessary and even wrong. “These mainly young people who have never known a war which directly threatened New Zealand, have been subverted by a philosophy which owes something to a genuine belief in pacifism, but much more to the whiteanting of people who are engaged in cunning psychological warfare which is deliberately designed to undermine the free world.”

Although he did not use the word in his speech, Mr Muldoon later confirmed that his reference was to Communists.

He said that subversive elements in New Zealand were being financed from both Russia and China, and he was critical of New Zealanders who want less money spent on defence. “There are even politicians today who are saying that various extravagant promises can be paid for out of what we at present spend on defence,” he said. Referring to the Communists, those he considered subverted by them, and some politicians, he said: “Whe-

ther they realise it or not these people are traitors to their country.” “We can wholeheartedly welcome the fact that the great super-Powers appear in closer accord today than in the past,” said Mr Muldoon. “But we must realistically face the fact that the conflict which has welled up between Russia and Mainland China is very largely responsible for the softening of the attitude of each of them towards the United States and other Western countries.

“While the leaders speak of peace, and our people quite rightly applaud, the softening up process continues. “The abandonment of our defence forces might be acceptable in a world where every country was prepared to do the same. No such world has yet existed, and that being so, failure to provide adequately for our share

of the collective defence effort which is our country’s protection, would be an act of folly. “The soft-talking enemy has captured the minds of many of our young people.” Mr Muldoon also expressed his view of the nature of Communism.

“Throughout the world in the last half-century, country after country has been engulfed by an ideology which negates human personality—and which brings, the individual down to the level of an animal or an inanimate part of a machine. “I have enough confidence in my fellow New Zealanders to believe that this alien creed cannot flourish here, but the damage is being done in more subtle ways. “It behoves those of us who see this threat to speak out and identify, it. The abuse that will be heaped upon us is a small price to pay for alerting our people to the danger that exists in our midst,” Mr Muldoon said. “I know too that if the time

should come when it was necessary, our young men would again devote themselves to the defence and preservation of their country. “We owe it to the men who served this country so well in the great conflicts of this century to see that what they fought for, and in so many cases gave their lives for—the continued freedom of our country—is not destroyed while we sleep.”