P.M. determined to maintain foreign aid policy

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33817, 14 April 1975, Page 2

P.M. determined to maintain foreign aid policy

(New Zealand Press Association

WELLINGTON, April 13.

New Zealand was not just a fair-weather friend, and it was not the Government’s view 7 that aid should be cut back drastically when times were tough, the Prime Minister (Mr Rowling) said yesterday.

“We have accepted an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We shall continue to do so.” Mr Rowling told the annual conference of the United Nations Association of New Zealand at Victoria University.

At a special session of the United Nations last April, to consider a “new economic order,” some of the demands of the developing countries had been radical, perhaps too radical, said Mr Rowling. But New Zealand was in sympathy with their general case.

The issues facing the United Nations had changed in the 30 years since the charter was signed, Mr Rowiing told the association.

“Then, the divisions caused bv the Cold War dominated the assembly. These have given way to the struggle to bridge the growing gulf between the rich and the poor.”

The problems of hunger and want, a fairer distribution of the world’s resources to give all countries the onportunity to develop their national economies — these issues had dominated United Nations activities in the last year.

The Government was committed to the view that it was in New Zealand’s larger interests to ensure that people everywhere got a better deal, said Mr Rowling. That was the wav to get stability.

On New Zealand aid to Tndo-Cbina, Mr Rowling said that Sim had been made available in cash or kind. i Alreadv S7OO oon wa= being snent. he said. Of the remainder, the Commissioner tor Refugees and the Save the children Fund would get §700(100. The other §lOO,OOO would go to the Red Cross.

The final form of the aid was up to the two agencies involved, he said. “We are now waiting for their detailed requests. Thev are the neonle on the ground, and thev know what they need most. We will fill their requests as quicklv as we can ” said Mr Rowling. The Government would also maintain a Hercules in the area for relief missions, and until the orphan situation

in Vietnam became clearer. < The “terrible tragedy” be- 1 ing enacted in Vietnam was I the outcome of years of ignoring the principles that the 1 United Nations stood for, he i told the association. i “We are seeing the tragic <i

consequences of using military methods,” said Mr Rowling. “Intervention has provoked further intervention, and the people who have suffered are those whose country has been i fought over.”