P.M. still silent on end to tests

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 8

P.M. still silent on end to tests

PA Wellington The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, yesterday again declined to say when the French had told him nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll would end. Mr Muldoon told a press conference that the French president, Mr Mitterrand, had not given him an exact date. “The French President told me that the tests would be over in about X years, not a date,” Mr Muldoon said. “Although he told me through an interpreter my French is quite good enough to know that was what he said in French. There is no question of misunderstanding,” he said. Mr Muldoon had said in Canberra on Friday that the French had set a date for the end of nuclear tests on Mururoa Atoll. He said he had given the date, in confidence, to the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Hawke. However, Mr Hawke yesterday discounted Mr Muldoon’s assertion that France had set a date. He told the National Press Club in Canberra that Mr Mitterrand had not mentioned during their recent meeting any deadline for the test programme to end. He also acknowledged that Mr Muldoon had given him the date Mr Mitterrand had allegedly given the New Zealand Prime Minister. “I had a useful discussion with President Mitterrand, and I tend to think that his conversation with me more accurately reflects what I am inclined to believe is the French position,” he said. “I know that won’t pre-

cipitate war between Australia and New Zealand,” Mr Hawke said, amid general laughter. Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman, Sir Wallace Rowling, said yesterday that he wanted Mr Muldoon to reveal when the tests were to end. Sir Wallace asked in Wellington why, if Mr Muldoon was given a time which he shared with Mr Hawke, he would not tell New Zealanders. “I am not going to get into an argument about it,” said Mr Muldoon. “I have told Bob Hawke what he (Mr Mitterrand) said to me and given him the precise statement he made. But I am not going to go any further with it,” he said. Sir Wallace said, “Clearly our Prime Minister is double-talking again and hoping he won’t get found out until it is too late.” Sir Wallace said that the French seemed to be proceeding with testing of “that ultimate obscenity in military hardware,” the neutron bomb. That was consistent with their absolute disregard for the views of South Pacific nations, he said. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Thomson, said yesterday that reports that the French Defence Minister, Mr Hernu, had confirmed France had tested neutron weapons at Mururoa would do nothing to allay the fears of people opposed to the testing. Mr Thomson said that the fact that the neutron bomb was claimed to be cleaner and smaller than other nuclear weapons gave no

comfort. “New Zealand concern will not be satisfied until France has ended its entire testing programme in the South Pacific,” Mr Thomson said. Neutron tests, page 3