Anti-apartheid stance praised

Press, 14 August 1984, Page 4

Anti-apartheid stance praised

NZPA staff correspondent London

A churchman in London has praised the New Zealand Labour Party’s antiapartheid stance and said he hoped Maori demands would now rate a “more sensitive” Government

response. Canon Paul Oestreicher thanked the Labour Administration for “charting a courageous course” on racial and nuclear issues. Canon Oestreicher, a New Zealand citizen who is the assistant general secretary of the British Council of Churches, released a letter he sent to the Prime Minister, Mr Lange. He wrote that the Christian Institute (of South Africa) Fund Trust, of which

he is chairman, would be “greatly encouraged by your resolute stand on the apartheid issue.” “I pray that this action may be strengthened through its domestic counterpart, a more sensitive response in future to meeting the just demands and fulfilling the rightful aspirations of the Maori people.” Canon Oestreicher, aged. 52, a political science graduate of Victoria University of. Wellington, is vice-president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He told Mr Lange it was “most encouraging to know that public opinion in New Zealand is behind you in rejecting a role for nuclear weapons in New Zealand’s defence.”