VIETNAM WAR

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 18

VIETNAM WAR

Resolutions Passed "Horror and disgust” at the extension of the war in Vietnam was expressed in a resolution passed at a public meeting in Christchurch during the week-end sponsored by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. The resolution also urged the Government to withdraw New Zealand troops from Vietnam forthwith. The meeting was called to hear Mrs Margaret Holmes, of Sydney, speak on the Vietnam war and peace action in Australia. Thirty persons attended. Copies of resolutions passed at the meeting will be sent to President Johnson, to the Prime Minister of Australia (Mr Holt), the Prime Minister of Great Britain (Mr Wilson) and to the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake). Other resolutions called on the Government to dissociate New Zealand from the United States bombing of civilian centres such as Hanoi and Haiphong, and to ask the United States Government to stop bombing in Vietnam, withdraw its forces, and allow the International Control Commission to implement the terms of the 1954 Geneva Accords to achieve “a peaceful and just ending to the war.” In her address Mrs Holmes compared the “current propaganda climate” in the Western world to George Orwell’s “1984” police state. Mrs Holmes is an Australian sponsor of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation.