‘Nuclear protest above politics’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34132, 20 April 1976, Page 13

‘Nuclear protest above politics’

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. Visits by nuclear warships and the introduction of nuclear power stations should be issues that were above politics, anti-nuclear protesters were told in Auckland Mr John Langdon, chairman of the Eden branch of the Labour Party, which organised a 24-hour fast in protest at the two issues, urged National Party members who also opposed nuclear power to work within their party to fight it. The issues, he said, should be above politics. Mr Langdon said the fast was a public demonstration

of opposition to nuclear power. The chaplain at Auckland University (the Rev. J. C. Hinchcliff), said the world was on the edge of a thermonuclear armageddon, blinded by politicians who irresponsibly inflicted fear on the public. He said the American military machine was out of control. Submarines and bombers based in the Pacific could wipe out 20,000 cities with Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs in half an hour. Mr Hinchcliff added that people who were silent and apathetic before the holocaust could be considered guilty for its happening. About 150 people turned up for the protest. Fasters stayed overnight in a tent pitched in Potters Park,