Mr McLay’s view of row with France

Press, 19 September 1985, Page 6

Mr McLay’s view of row with France

By PETER O’HARA, NZPA staff correspondent London New Zealand’s row with France was over “an incident of a much smaller nature” than the MoscowLondon spy saga, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr McLay, said yesterday. But the Soviets and Brit-, ish had shown how to keep “rhetoric and their relationship on a reasonable level," Mr McLay told NZPA. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, was using language which was helping damage

relations with France, Mr McLay said. He questioned whether Mr Lange should visit Paris, as suggested, to meet President Mitterrand to discuss the row which started with the sinking of the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior in July, allegedly by French agents. “I would have thought it would have been better if Mr Palmer (the Deputy Prime Minister) had gone. At least the man has a more diplomatic turn of

tongue,” he said. Mr McLay, just arrived in London for appointments including calls on the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, and the Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, said, “France has done us a very real wrong—let us have no doubt about that. But that does not alter the fact that when it comes to dealing with these things everybody has a responsibility to keep the language and the exchanges at a level that does not damage the long-term relationship.”