Row over N-advert plan

Press, 1 February 1983, Page 8

Row over N-advert plan

NZPA London The British Defence Ministry’s plans for a big advertising campaign to counter support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have started a political storm. the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Roy .Jenkins. its president. Mrs Shirley Williams, and several Labour members of Parliament have so far condemned the scheme which could-.pse up to £1 million (SNZ2'.I4 million) of public funds to pay a giant, American-owned advertising agency. But the Foreign Office Minister of State, Mr Douglas Hurd, defended the plan, asserting that the govern-

ment had a responsibility to set out the facts. On the 8.8. C. radio's The World This Week-end programme, Mr Hurd said that the nuclear disarmament debate would be the most important political issue during 1983. Mr Hurd said: “I think we have a very good case to put for a steadier, safer peace. There is a tremendous amount of misinformation floating around. There is a lot to correct. "But we also have a positive line to put which will come as quite a surprise to people who have fallen for propaganda." He s>aid that this year or next held the prospect of a

hard-headed agreement on nuclear disarmament with the Soviet Union as long as the West did not lose its nerve and give away concessions without anything in return. There were plenty of precedents for the Government using advertising campaigns to set out facts in an argument, although he conceded that it could not be a party political campaign. The C.N.D. “seem to have a very great deal of money and some of the stuff they are putting out is misleading. We will not be putting out propaganda. We have a responsibility to set out the facts.”