N-policy ‘fiction’

Press, 4 August 1987, Page 3

N-policy ‘fiction’

PA Wellington The National Party’s policy on nuclear weapons is just a fiction, said a British peace campaigner, Dr Bruce Kent, in Wellington yesterday. “Nearly every U.S. naval ship of any size carries nuclear weapons. The American neither confirm-nor-deny policy is a formula to save the face of the host country,” he said. The leader of the National Party, Mr Bolger, has said a National Government would amend anti-nuclear legislation to allow active A.N.Z.U.S. membership while making it clear New Zealand did not want nuclear weapons. He said he would trust allies to respect National’s

wishes and not bring nuclear weapons into the country. But Dr Kent today rejected this, saying: “This seems good on paper but it simply doesn’t work in practice. The Japanese have a similar policy, yet an American aircraft carrier goes into Yokohama regularly.” Dr Kent, the vice-chair-man of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain, is visiting New Zealand as a guest of the Peace Movement Aotearoa.

Dr Kent said New Zealand’s non-nuclear had made a big impression on the rest of the world — “this small country standing up to a major power and getting away with it.”