COMMENT ON N.Z. ATTITUDE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27397, 9 July 1954, Page 11

COMMENT ON N.Z. ATTITUDE

“Not Tucked Into U.S. Pockets” MONTREAL. July 7 A leading article in the “Montreal Star’* said today that the New Zealand Minister of External Affairs (Mr T. C. Webb) had shown by his latest statement on Communist China that there were two ways of looking at everything, and that the Americans did not have him “tucked away in thqjr pockets.” The article said: “When Mr Webb joined with the United States and Australia in an Anzus declaration for the ‘immediate’ formation of a defence front in Asia, the news hit the front pages of the United States papers. “It was generally agreed that New Zealand was a sensible and dependable ally. “When Mr Webb went home and told the New Zealand Parliament that he thought, on practical grounds, Red China should be admitted to the United Nations, Mr Webb’s newsworthiness took a sharp dip. “It turned out he was not quite the big-scale statesman our neighbours had thought he was. “They will, we hope, remember that, if they were so pleased with his judgment on the defence pact scheme, they should also treat with respect his ideas about the international future of Red China.

“It may be, of course, that Mr Webb is wrong on both counts. There are powerful reasons against the admission of Red China to the United Nations, at least now. “There are also good reasons why haste in the creation of a defence pact will alienate the Asian nations, whose help is essential if the scheme is to be successful.