11 Congressmen Leave on South Pacific Trip
The House sent 11 members of its Armed Services Committee to the South Pacific on Monday for a two-week trip, including a stop in New Zealand to discuss nuclear policy.
“We are gravely concerned that if New Zealand persists in its refusal to allow U.S. Navy ships to call at its ports, the ANZUS treaty may be terminated,” delegation leader Samuel S. Stratton (D-N.Y.) said. ANZUS stands for the defense treaty’s signatories: Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
The future of the treaty has been thrown into doubt by the New Zealand’s decision last February to refuse docking to U.S. ships capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Stratton said the delegation will also visit French Polynesia, Australia and Fiji.
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