Belize calls on N.Z. for defence aid

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 27

Belize calls on N.Z. for defence aid

NZPA-Reuter Nassau, Bahamas Belize has called on New Zealand and other larger Commonwealth countries to help share with Britain the burden of the defence of its own and other small countries. Belizean delegates to a conference in Nassau of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association said the smaller countries should develop their own defence but that larger nations also had an obligation to help. Britain maintains ground and air forces in the central American country of Belize as a deterrent to neighbouring Guatemala’s claim to much of the former British colony which was, until its independence in 1981, British Honduras. But the Belizean Minister

of Works, Mr Frederick Hunter, said that Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India should share the burden of defence. “It. is unfair to expect Britain to take on the role of sole defender of the Commonwealth,” he said. The deputy leader of the Belizean' Opposition, Mr Philip Goldson, said: “We would like to see a Commonwealth defence force established, not only to protect small countries like Belize but also to protect Commonwealth territopr everywhere. We would like to see • Commonwealth troops trained in Belize.” The delegates said they saw the presence of British troops in their country not as a symbol of colonialism but as a guarantee of security.