N-stand reaffirmed

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 3

N-stand reaffirmed

The Christchurch disarmament campaigner, Dr Kevin Clements, is upset to find his name has been used to support a “Save A.N.Z.U.S.” campaign. He returned from a disarmament conference overseas to find the Tau-ranga-based "Save A.N.Z.U.S.” group had used one of his comments, which he said was taken out of context and misquoted, in its newspaper advertising to sell stickers. Dr Clements was a member of the Defence Committee of Inquiry which reported this year. He said the advertisements had caused anxiety among his friends. If the “Save A.N.Z.U.S.” group had asked for his permissici® to use his name, he

would have refused. Dr Clements said he was in favour of a nuclear-free New Zealand remaining in A.N.Z.U.S. if the United States was willing to accept the country’s unconditional anti-nuclear stand. “I am not in favour of abandoning the ship ban nor postponing the antinuclear legislation to achieve this objective,” he said. “On the contrary, I place greater priority on maintaining the antinuclear stance and am willing to abandon the alliance if New Zealand’s partners are unwilling to acknowledge the benefit of an unequivocally nonnuclear ally.” Participants at the disarmament copfgrence

in Greece had been enthusiastic in their support of New Zealand’s antinuclear stance. If New Zealand now backed away from its position on warship access it would undermine the country’s right to determine its own. non-nuclear future, and dishearten people round the world who had been encouraged by New Zealand’s stand. “The U.S.’s regrettable response to New Zealand indicates that they place more value on their global nuclear containment strategy than they do on their relations with friends and allies,” he said. “If being an ally of the U.S. means accepting their global nuclear strategy we are better off being non-aligned.”