ZEALANDERS PROTEST FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTS
CHRISTCHURCH -- There is, in New Zealand, considerable oppo= sition to the proposed French nuclear tests in the Pacific, Organisations as diverse as the Federation of Labour, the Townswomen's Guild, Federated Farmers and the Post Primary Teachers! Association have all made' strong protests to the New Zealand government, and the: government, in turn, has protested to the French government, but to no avail,
The most prominent organisation directing such protests is the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [onpD], whose sole function is embodied in its name. This group is controlled by. petty-bourgeois and Christian pacifist elements, and there is very littie participation in its activities by the workers.
The CND at present appears to be incapable of going beyond
the tactic of petitions and trying to influence New Zealand's political decision-makers. Thus it tends to become a mere pressure group which relies on parliament to lead the country against the French tests,
The main activity of the CND has been circulating an Open Letter to de Gaulle which is supposed to be signed by organisations rather than by individuals, Both the New Zealand Labour party and the Federation of Labour have. called for a consumers! boycott of French goods as a form of protest, but the CND, fearful of being called a "front" organisation with a left-wing political bias, has done nothing in support of this,
Last year the OND circulated a petition calling for the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the Southern Hemisphere, This petition was signed by 83,000 people out of a total popuiation of some 2,500,000. Since- ita circulation was limited to half a dozen towns, "this was quite exceptional,
The Labour party included advocacy of this nuclear-free zone in its policy for the 1963 general election. The CND refused to give public support to the Labour party for fear of alienating potential support from the National (right-wing) party. This party was returned as the government, and the CND now finds itself pressuring the government to do something about the nuclear-free zone. and the proposed French tests.
Labour party proposals for a boycott had frightened the CND; but six months later, one of CND's supporters in the House of Representatives, S.A.Whitehead (a Labour party member) started action on. a motion oalling for New Zealand to take the initiative in convoking a conference to discuss the nuclear-free zone proposals, It seems likely that the Labour members of parliament generally will support. this, but the CND still thinks it can remain neutral politically
without jeopardising its own support and acceptance of its programme, In support of this proposal pickets demonstrated before the House of Representatives,
|The national conmittee of the CND has supported in prinoiple, although it has done nothing concretely to assist, a proposal to | send a boat into the test area to dramatise New. Zealand's protest against any more nuclear tests in the Pacific,
NEW. ZEALAND CND "OPEN LETYER TO DE GAULLE"
[The following is the text of an Open