War settlement chances ‘better’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33069, 9 November 1972, Page 16

War settlement chances ‘better’

A settlement of the war in Vietnam might not be imminent, the Prime Minister (Mr Marshall) said in Christchurch yesterday while commenting on the re-election of President Nixon.

Pressed on this point, he declined to define the word “imminent,” but said there would not be a settlement tomorrow “as some people seem to think.” He said that the prospect of peace with honour in Vietnam was now better as a re-

I suit of the clear mandate which President Nixon had been given. “He will not now be negotiating against the deadline of the elections,” said Mr Marshall. “I believe that while a settlement may not be imminent, it will be all the better by reason of the added strength which he now has.” Mr Marshall said he had already sent a message of congratulations to President Nixon. He believed that New Zealands* interests would be well served by the decisive verdict of the American people. Trade was likely to improve, as it had already under the President’s administration. New Zealand’s collective defence arrangements would be preserved.

“I think it is also in the interests of world peace that President Nixon will be able to promote the policy of reconciliation which he has already carried through so successfully, both with the U.S.S.R. and with Communist China,” said Mr Marshall.

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) said in Oamaru last night that the return of President Nixon was a vote to end the war in Vietnam. This seemed to have been the principle issue right through the elections.

Museum benefit About 200 persons gave $6B toward the Canterbury Museum’s anniversary appeal fund at a film evening at the Museum Theatre, Christchurch, last evening. Mr J. Warham, a lecturer in zoology at the University of Canterbury, described aspects of his 15 months as an ornithologist on Macquarie Island, one of the most isolated of the sub-Antarctic islands.