Shultz Rips New Zealand’s ‘Siren Song of Escapism’

The United States and Australia conferred today on South Pacific security matters, with New Zealand absent for the first time in decades as the ANZUS alliance of the three nations continues to fray and as Soviet activity in the region increases.

Issues being discussed by Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Australian Foreign Minister Bill Hayden are much the same as those at past annual ANZUS meetings, but the talks are billed as “security consultations” because, with New Zealand absent, the pact is effectively suspended.

Hayden, in his opening remarks, sought to quickly pass over New Zealand’s absence, but Shultz, in his harshest words since the controversy arose, decried “escapism and isolationism” as “lingering urges to flee from common responsibility.”

While not naming New Zealand yet clearly aiming at that country, Shultz charged that heeding “the siren song of escapism . . . is to invite war.”

The South Pacific is now at peace and enjoying economic growth, he said, because of the ANZUS pact and other Western alliances and despite increasing Soviet power in the Pacific. “Fortunately, the United States and Australia have not sought to opt out of our commitments,” he said.

Last year, New Zealand’s Labor Party government declared that no nuclear-fueled or nuclear-armed ships could call in its ports, and in February, it refused entry to an American destroyer when the United States held to its policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons aboard its vessels.

The United States canceled all joint military exercises with New Zealand and stopped sharing intelligence information, while adopting a public posture of “looking forward to full restoration of port calls in the future.”

Privately, U.S. and Australian officials began Sunday to explore ways to increase their cooperation in order to pick up the slack left by New Zealand’s becoming “odd man out,” according to a senior U.S. official traveling with Shultz.

Emphasizing heightened military concern about New Zealand’s absence from the alliance and about Soviet regional activity, Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., the U.S. Navy’s Pacific commander, who will become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew here from Honolulu to take part in the meetings.

Crowe is particularly disturbed about a Soviet naval buildup in the northwestern Pacific and extensive Soviet use of U.S.-built facilities at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, pointing out that from Vietnamese bases, Soviet ships and aircraft can be sent deep into the South Pacific.

Crowe and Shultz, as well as Australian officials and those of the non-Communist nations of Southeast Asia, have expressed serious concern as well about Soviet attempts to gain access to the South Pacific through fishing agreements with new island nations.

In one such case, the new state of Kiribati, formerly the Gilbert Islands, is reportedly close to signing an agreement with Moscow to let Soviet trawlers fish for tuna within its 200-mile economic zone. The Soviets would pay $2.4 million a year for fishing licenses for 16 ships.

U.S. and Australian officials worry that such a large payment, amounting to 10% to 15% of the islands’ budget, would become a lever for Moscow to gain onshore facilities for fish processing and ship repair--and later for intelligence collection and refueling of aircraft.