N.Z. nuclear policies ‘doing positive good’

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 9

N.Z. nuclear policies ‘doing positive good’

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

There are millions of people who want to “import” New' Zealand’s nuclear-free policies whether it wants to “export’* them or not, according to the member of Parliament for Sydenham, Mr Jim Anderton.

Mr Anderton was addressing the Hornby Rotary Club last evening about his recent visit to Canada where he was one of the speakers at the Vancouver Centennial Peace and Disarmament Symposium.

Given what he said was the urgency of the case against the nuclear arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons of an increasingly dangerous kind, New Zealand ought to be

proud to export such a policy..

That did not mean New Zealand should judge others harshly for not following its lead, he said, but New Zealand need not and should not be overly cautious about its leadership on the issue. New Zealand’s nuclearfree policy was doing positive good for tens if not hundreds of millions of the world’s people who were starved of principled and enlightened leadership towards world peace and disarmament

No New Zealander who had had contact with the international community could doubt the widespread admiration and respect New Zealand’s stand against the proliferation of nuclear weapons had won for

it, Mr Anderton said. In Canada, Australia, and throughout the world New Zealand was seen as a country of courage and integrity.

There was tremendous good will and a strong desire to see New Zealand hold out against all the pressures that had and would be brought against it to conform.

While Mr Anderton was in Vancouver there had been “lamb and kiwifruit parties” being Advertised, special promotions of New Zealand foods, and neighbourhood “kiwi culture evenings.” AH these people and functions had been trying in their own way to give material as well as moral support to New Zealand, Mr Anderton said.