Call to stop protests over nuclear ships

Press, 22 October 1980, Page 6

Call to stop protests over nuclear ships

PA Auckland The new Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr Merwyn Norrish, yesterday urged New Zealanders to stop agitating against visits by American nuclear warships and to consider the benefits of relations with the United States. In an address to the Newmarket Rotary' Club on New Zealand’s position in the world, he echoed the assessment of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Taiboys, that New Zealand would have

to respond to a changing world situation. For the first ■ time Britain had been replaced as New'Zealand’s main trading partner, said Mr Norrish. Th the year to June the biggest New Zealand export customer had been the United States, : which was also the guarantor of New Zealand’s Security, a main source of imports;; and important for tourism, technology, and education. “Perhaps we should stop getting too agitated about visits by nuclear-powered ships and start giving due weight to all the advantages our relations with

the Americans give us,” said Mr Norrish. t \ “There are growing op-;' portunities for New Zealand in the ‘sun belt’ • of the south and south-west. Houston, Texas, may soon be; as important to us as New York.” Mr Norrish ■ was New Zealand’s Ambassador to the United States for two years before taking up his new position earlier this year. " He also spoke of Australia, the' Middle East, and East Asia as places - where rapid changes in New ■ Zealand interests t were taking place.