Government security tightened

Press, 14 July 1981, Page 1

Government security tightened

Parliamentary reporter Most Cabinet Ministers are expected to curtail publicity about their public engagements during the Springbok tour to avoid confrontation with protest groups. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said yesterday after the Cabinet meeting that the protest in Christchurch at the week-end had clearly been organised some days before his visit to watch the Davis Cup tie. "They organised themselves as soon as they knew I

was going to be at the tennis match." he said. “It is commonsense to give them the shortest possible notice." There was not much to the Christchurch incident, Mr Muldoon said. “They started out to have a peaceful demonstration." he said. “One man got through the police cordon, and seemed so surprised that he didn't know quite what to do to me. "They grabbed him just at the point he touched me. 1 don't think there was any real danger involved."

Mr Muldoon said that he consulted with the Commissioner of Police (Mr R. J. Walton) about giving advance notice of his engagements on a daily basis only, instead of his normal weekly basis, solely for security reasons. He expected most other Cabinet Ministers would adopt the same policy during the tour. Late yesterday afternoon three ' Cabinet Ministers had taken that course. Mr Muldoon said that he had made it clear a long

time ago that he saw all types of disruption and lawbreaking if the tour went ahead the Press Association reported. He said that he had not yet studied all the messages that had come in from overseas after the decision of the Commonwealth Southern African Committee to defer a decision on the transfer of the Finance Ministers' meeting from Auckland. Mr Muldoon said that he could not see New Zealand leaving the Commonwealth.

“It was our Commonwealth long before it was the Commonwealth of other countries." he said. Some of the strongest statements at the Commonwealth committee meeting in London last Friday had been made by Guyana and Grenada. Guyana was a country where political freedom was virtually non-existent, and Grenada, he said, had a government which was “revolutionary": and “unashamedly Marxist.”