Mr Rowling briefed on expulsion — P.M.

Press, 16 February 1980, Page 6

Mr Rowling briefed on expulsion — P.M.

PA Wellington The leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) was briefed by the director of the Security Intelligence Service (Mr P. L. Molineaux) over the expulsion of the Soviet Ambassador'(Mr Vsevolod Sofinsky) said the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) last evening. Mr Rowling confirmed last evening in Brisbane that he had been briefed by Mr Molineaux but would not say if it was about the. Sofinsky expulsion. ' Mr Muldoon said he had learned yesterday afternoon that the briefing had taken place at Mr Rowling’s request. ’■■■ . Mr Sofinsky was given 72 hours last month to leave New Zealand for allegedly transferring funds to the Moscow-aligned Socialist Unity Party. Mr Muldoon had earlier told reporters that he had not shown Mr Rowling the evidence against Mr Sofinsky and that he was not aware Mr Rowling had consulted Mr Molineaux. Mr Muldoon was commenting on a report in a London “Economist” newspaper’s. weekly newsletter “Foreign Report” which said that Mr Rowling had been shown the evidence.

Last evening Mr Muldoon telephoned NZPA and said he had since learned from

i the permanent head of his - department, Mr B. Galvin, s that Mr Rowling had met Mr b Molineaux. “Mr Galvin had not ) thought it necessary to tell b me,” Mr Muldoon said. “Mr - Rowling was briefed without jmy knowledge,. but he is ) quite entitled to and there is no reason why I should be t informed. J > “I understand he expressed r himself as being satisfied f about the reasons for the exf pulsion.” Mr Rowling, speaking by i telephone from Brisbane, said i the meeting was not at his i request, contrary to the . opinion of the Prime Minister. > He said he would not com- > ment on the Sofinsky affair r until he had spoken to Mr > Muldoon, or a member of his staff, was given the information on which the Govern- . ment based its decision to i expel the ambassador. , “I still believe it is the ; responsibility of the Prime , Minister to see that I am j informed or personally to direct someone to see that . I am informed,” Mr Rowling '■ said. “That clearly did not . happen.” Mr Rowling said that in matters such as the Sofinsky expulsion it was not the job of the Director of the S.I.S. ■to brief him on what the Government was doing.

5 “That is the job of the , Government,” he said. r Mr Rowling said he saw Mr Molineaux “from time to t time” but would not say if 1 the director had brought him r the evidence that led to the t Soviet ambassador’s expul- ’ sion. ~J s s ' r > “Foreign Report,” a weekly newsletter in international affairs, reported that the 1 S.I.S. recorded a converl sation in which Mr Sofinsky ' instructed the S.U.P. on how it should use the money. [ “Foreign Report" said the J evidence was shown pri- ! vately to Mr Rowling, “who ! found it persuasive.” Mr Rowling, in Brisbane as part of an Australian trip, ; would not say whether he , had been shown the material , privately. ’ No journalist had approached him before writing ’ the newsletter article and this was “irresponsible,” said Mr Rowling. “Foreign Report” said the recording of the conversation between Mr Sofinsky and the S.U.P. took place in an Auckland hotel last December. “A versatile and trusted S.I.S. agent was in the hotel at the time,” it said. However, the hard evidence of Mr Sofinsky’s actually transferring funds to the S.U.P. did not come until later, it said.