OVERSEAS POSTS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29509, 10 May 1961, Page 12

OVERSEAS POSTS

Reasons For Number

IN.Z. Prest Association) WELLINGTON, May 9. *1 don’t think we can expect to have very wide representation overseas,” said the Secretary of External Affairs (Mr A. D. Mclntosh) when asked at the convention of the New Zealand Institute of Public Administration if he could predict the future of his department. There were 99 so-called independent countries in the United Nations and numbers of others not in the United Nations. It was inconceivable that New Zealand would want to pay the cost of having (representation far and wide. It would be better to confine representation to four or five of the major countries of the world, to the countries of the Commonwealth and to the countries in or bordering the Pacific. He said New Zealand would be assisted by having a few more posts, but for some years it could not staff them and he did not think the taxpayer would pay the cost of them. He would not say that a small number of posts and a small department could not function well. It was »aid at the meeting that the department’s staff numbered 218. 100 of whom were diplomatic representatives. There were 11 diplomatic posts and four con-sulates-general. Later this year another consulategeneral would open in Geneva.