OUR VIEW

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 265, 29 November 1988, Page 4

OUR VIEW

By

Robert

Milne

A United Nations tribunal is sitting soon to arbitrate the matter of the French governmentassisted "escape" of second-rate saboteurs Alain Mafart and Domonique Prieur. Their government obviously feels they have done their time. "Our view" on these smoke-screens-personified is: Who cares? Since the Rainbow Warrior was bombed the pressure from New Zealand on the French to stop their tests in the South Pacific has dwindled away to almost nothing. Most New Zealanders are now wandering around busy being affronted by the actions of the arrogant French, totally diverted from the issue which is surely more important - the exploding of nuclear warheads inside a fragile Pacific coral atoll. It would seem the French are so right when they say that New Zealand "doesn't understand the subtleties of the French position". Perhaps "the subtleties" refer to sending a couple of spies to New Zealand, who blow up a ship, let themselves get caught and then spend the next couple of years creating smoke in front of a bunch of unsubtle Kiwis. Maybe Dominique Prieur and Alain Marfarty were not so second-rate? Our View says New Zealanders now need to realise they've been conned, clear away the smoke and get on with joining other Pacific nations in pressuring the French to stop testing. This issue may seem a long way off the brief of a community newspaper but it is communities of New Zealanders such as those in the Waimarino that are trying to make up a nuclearfree New Zealand.