Senators evade protest party

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34048, 12 January 1976, Page 1

Senators evade protest party

Protesters and reporters were baffled by the arrival of four American senators in Christchurch yesterday. While 30 protesters distributed leaflets and watched patiently for the Qantas flight from Australia, the reporters waited inside the terminal building of Christchurch Airport for the four men. However, the protesters, representing the Campaign Against Foreign Military Activity in New Zealand, were quick to spot the special American airliner arriving from Sydney e.nd they ran from the balcony, children on their shoulders, in an effort to express their view against military activity in New Zealand to Senators E. F. Hollings, R. P. Griffin, H. H. Baker, and J. C. Culver. Their aircraft taxied to a halt by the base of the American Antarctic research support unit in Christchurch. However, the closest the protesters got to them was seeing them through a bus window. The only people in the area they were able to distribute leaflets to were the

six policemen sent to keep an eye on the group. Four policemen also waited for the group at the Russley Hotel where the Senators are staying. A spokesman for the protesters, Mr J. Christie, said that they felt that the Senators were in New Zealand to meet the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and other Cabinet Ministers to talk about military and other United States activities in New Zealand. Their leaflet outlined who the four Senators were, and what committees they represented, particularly the Foreign Relations Committee. According to one protester the leaflet pointed out the further “discredited manoeuvres of the United States foreign policy.” They protested about the possibility of New Zealand’s sending troops to support the United States in Thailand, the existence of military bases in New Zealand run by the United States, and the Mount John satellite tracking station.