New Zealand Chief to Visit L.A., Defend Ship Ban

Prime Minister David Lange announced Monday that he will stop in Los Angeles next week to personally defend his government’s ban on visits by nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed warships.

In Canberra, meanwhile, an Australian Defense Ministry spokesman said the United States has pulled out of a meeting of the ANZUS (Australia-New Zealand-U.S.) alliance that was to have started Monday in Sydney. Australia said the meeting, which was to discuss military communications, was then canceled. There was no comment from Washington.

New Zealand said Saturday that Washington had canceled an anti-submarine exercise at the end of the month that was to have involved a New Zealand reconnaissance aircraft in Hawaii. The United States earlier called off naval maneuvers with the ANZUS partners that were to have begun at the end of this month.

The cancellations were in response to New Zealand’s refusal to allow a port call by a U.S. destroyer capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The policy was part of the platform of the Labor Party, which took power in elections in July.

During a hastily arranged 27-hour stopover in Los Angeles en route to Britain, Lange will speak Monday to the New Zealand Connection, a group of New Zealand business executives and expatriates. His appearance at the Ambassador Hotel luncheon, he said, is an attempt to reassure Americans that the ban does not mean New Zealand is no longer a U.S. ally.

Political analysts said Lange’s trip reflects New Zealand’s feeling that misinformation is being spread by American news media about New Zealand’s attitude toward the ANZUS defense treaty.

‘Put the Record Straight’

“I will be moving . . . to put the record straight about our commitment, our concern that the (upcoming U.S.-Soviet) disarmament talks proceed and our commitment to the ANZUS alliance, so that no one there need think there is some kind of maverick action here in the South Pacific,” Lange told a press conference.

Washington has ordered a review of all aspects of its links with New Zealand under ANZUS but has not said this would mean the cancellation of military exercises planned with New Zealand this year.

At its regular weekly meeting, the New Zealand Cabinet reaffirmed the nuclear ship ban, which is designed to keep the country from becoming a target in the event of war. “We are not going to change that policy,” Lange said.

Lange said there will be no referendum on the policy even though an opinion poll found that 83% of New Zealanders desire such a vote. Last year’s general election gave the government a clear mandate on the issue, he said.

No Contradiction Seen

The poll said that a majority of New Zealanders support ANZUS and see no contradiction in also supporting the warship ban. It also said that 56% expect the policy to damage export trade. Some members of Congress have called for removing trade advantages enjoyed by New Zealand’s vital agricultural exports to the United States.

Lange said he does not expect substantial economic or defense retaliation from Washington, but he predicted “enough embarrassment to make me wince.”

He said the United States will not “pull the rug out from under New Zealand (but) they might polish the lino (linoleum) a bit harder and hope that I execute a rather unseemly glide across it.”