MR KIRK’S VIEW

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32819, 20 January 1972, Page 1

MR KIRK’S VIEW

Govt move urged

The Leader of the Opposion(Mr Kirk) last evening urged the Prime Minister (Sir Keith Holyoake) to make effective approaches to other Commonwealth countries with a view to securing the release of Mr Garfield Todd and his daughter after their arrest in Rhodesia.

New Zealand, said Mr Kirk, should be well placed to take such action. No stone should be left unturned in the quest to secure the release of Mr Todd, a former New Zealander, Rhodesian public figure, and esteemed Commonwealth citizen. Mr Kirk offered the wholehearted support of the Labour Party in such a move.

"I am horrified that the Government of Rhodesia is apparently not prepared to admit an open debate on a vitally important constitutional matter,” he said. “It has apparently been decided that anyone can say what they like in Rhodesia provided they say no more than that which meets with the approval of the Rhodesian rebel regime..” "Mr Garfield Todd served Rhodesia well. If not now then some time in the future, it will be the enlightened, humanistic attitudes that motivated Mr Todd which will provide the eventual solution to the problem.” Mr Kirk said that political suppression, destruction of freedom of speech, and curtailment and deprivation of human rights were a poor basis for endorsement of any regime. “It certainly destroys any confidence that the present proposals can provide a just and equitable solution," he said.

“If this was in doubt previously, the gaoling of Mr Todd and his daughter will ensure it for certain,” Mr Kirk said.