Minister berates defence staff for ‘disloyalty’

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 1

Minister berates defence staff for ‘disloyalty’

By

MARTIN FREETH

in Wellington

The Minister of Defence, Mr O’Flynn, took to task publicly yesterday senior military officers, alleging disloyalty by some who were opposed to the Government’s antinuclear policy.

Mr O’Flynn also made public details of how his decision not to approve the overseas posting of an Army colonel was overturned by the Prime

Minister, Mr Lange. The Minister circulated a 12-page statement at Parliament to voice his dissatisfactions. The disloyalty allegation gathered support from Mr Lange who was later questioned at his weekly post-Cabinet meeting press conference. Mr Lange said it was obvious some officers had been disloyal because they had leaked information to the news media. The Government would consider how to stop such leaks, but Mr Lange said he had not had time to consider what form an investigation would take.

The O’Flynn statement accused a “few disloyal” officers and Ministry of Defence staff members of leaking “often wrong and distorted” information to

journalists and the Opposition with the object of discrediting the Government and its policy. Mr O’Flynn said the "real difficulty” was a dislike of the Government’s anti-nuclear policy by the defence establishment which had turned to opposition by some members as the United States cut off defence co-opera-tion which had existed for 30 years. “Long - cherished illusions were dispelled and practices that had become congenial were stopped.” The statement explained Mr O’Flynn’s views on several import-

ant defence decisions which have recently attracted publicity, and also recounted a "story of disregard for Ministerial authority” involving top

officers. The latter concerned his requirements for information to justify the posting overseas of senior officers to training courses. Mr O’Flynn said that in late 1984 he had reluctantly approved the posting of two officers to a course in London without detailed information to justify the “enormous” expenditure. He suggested that a requirement for such information about a similar posting that came up for approval last July was ignored by the Ministry and his approval “taken for granted." Mr O’Flynn described

conversations with the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Sir Ewan Jamieson, and the Chief of General Staff, MajorGeneral John Mace.

When he had finally received only some of the information he had sought about the course, he declined approval. Major-General Mace had then exercised a longstanding right of military chiefs to go directly to the Prime Minister, because of concerns about the morale of senior Army officers and Canadian reaction to withdrawal of the “student” officer from the course. “I raised no objection (to his seeing the Prime Minister), though legally it seemed doubtful if the right given him by the Defence Act really applied to such a case,” Mr O’Flynn said.