London banners claim P.M. is 'anti-Maori’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34127, 13 April 1976, Page 1

London banners claim P.M. is 'anti-Maori’

- (By

DAVID BARBER.

N.Z.P.A. staff correspdndenf )

LONDON,

April 12. After presenting himself to the Queen at Windsor Castle today and being sworn in as a Privy Councillor, the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) will be picketed by demonstrators protesting against his Government’s “racist, undemocratic” policies.

The demonstration, which will take place outside New Zealand House, may be the first of a number directed against Mr Muldoon during his four-day official visit to London. The London branch of the Halt All Racist Tours organisation plans two demonstrations. There were indications when Mr Muldoon arrived yesterday that another group would protest against the Prime Minister.

Police at London Airport seized five banners in the terminal building just before Mr Muldoon flew in yesterday, but there was no sign of the demonstrators who were apparently going to display them. The banners were all handdrawn with red lipstick. One said: “No women, no Maoris

in my Cabinet, says fascist dictator Muldoon.” Another said: “Muldoon racist,” and a third claimed that Mr Muldoon was anti-Maori.

Miss Kathy Baxter, formerly of Wellington, who is secretary of H.A.R.T.’s London branch, denied any knowledge of the airport banners . . . “We did not organise anything for today,” she said.

She also said H.A.R.T. was not connected with an advertisement printed in the satirical magazine, “Private Eye,” calling on people to protest against Mr Muldoon’s visit. A telephone number was given, but there has been no reply to callers over the last few days. Apart from today’s demonstration outside New Zealand House, when Mr Muldoon will attend a trade reception, H.A.R.T. is planning a protest at Downing Street when Mr Muldoon meets his British counterpart, Mr James Callaghan, tomorrow.

linage threatened In a press statement. Miss • Baxter said since Mr Muldoon’s election there had been "increasing signs that New Zealand’s image as a successful multi-racial country is threatened.” "She referred to sporting contacts with South Africa, and asserted that New Zealand had reneged on the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference agreement to compensate Mozambique for closing her border with Rhodesia. New Zealanders at home and abroad were also concerned about Mr Muldoon’s attitude to the racial question within New Zealand, she said. “The resumption of dawn raids to check the visas of Polynesians; reduced and increasingly vetted immigration; and "statements by Mr Muldoon indicating an intention to force young unemployed Maoris ‘back to the marae’ are not signs of a healthy and racially harmonious society.” Most of these tonics were covered in Mr Muldoon’s 1 arrival press conference, his i only public appearance after a ceremonial Maori welcome! at London Airport yesterday.! The conference was dominated by the question of the future of British migrants. —after the statement by the, Minister of Immigration (Mr! Gill) that 3000 Britons were illegally in New Zealand—and the effect of sporting ties with South Africa on the coming Olympics in Montreal. ‘’Class warfare’ A number of British migrants with a trade unibn background had tried to bring "suicidal class warfare” toi New Zealand, Mr Muldoonsaid. The Government V.as tightening security, in conjunction with the British 1 authorities, to make sure that! they did not get entry permits in future. I There was no policy to expel militant British union-

is(s at this stage, he said, but industrial laws were being strengthened to give further penalties for excessive militancy. While net migration would be pegged at 5000 a year while New Zealand’s economic crisis continued, Mr Muldoon said, he would assure British Ministers in the next few days that the great majority of New Zealand immgrants would continue to come from the United Kingdom. Mr Muldoon again rejected demands by Mr Abraham Ordia, president of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, that New Zealand call off the All Black tour of South Africa or risk a boycott of 29 Black African nations of the Montreal Olympics. He told a Canadian television interviewer, who saw Mr Ordia in Lagos last wek, that New Zealand would not be ’‘blackmailed.” If the boycott succeeded, the Prime Minister said, it would spell

the end of the modern Olympics. Mr Muldoon made it clear that his main aim in thia week’s talks in London was I to get reaffirmation that the - new Callaghan administration ■ would continue to fight for • New Zealand’s trading interI ests within the European i Common Market. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) was only ‘‘scaremongering,” when he said that a number of British migrants with a trade union background had tried to bring suicidal class warfare to New Zealand, the secretary of the Canterbury Trades Council (Mr F. E. McNulty) said last evening. “Tile trade union movement objects strongly to any indication that there is an influx of trade union officials from Britain, and that they are exploiting positions in New Zealand. The unrest is resulting from the economic conditions in New Zealand,” said Mr McNulty.