Communist bid fails

NZSPA Service

Delegates to the Easter conference of the British National Union of Students have voted to rejoin the Western-orientated International Student Conference (ISC).

This Decision came six months after the Margate conference at which delegates to the 300,000-strong NUS refused to ratify the ISC charter drawn up at Christchurch in June, 1964. By a two to one majority the delegates further voted to withdraw from the ISC after 15 years' membership.

Alan Hunt, a 23-year-old law student and Communist Party member from Leeds University, had led the withdrawal movement. He advocated instead a "neutralist" policy, believing that NUS would carry more weight among national student unions if it did not belong to either the ISC or the Communist-dominated International Union of Students.

Between the Margate conference in November and the Exeter conference at Easter, NUS executive members flooded British universities and training colleges with ISC propaganda.

President Bill Savage and his successor (elected at Exeter) Geoff Martin, visited more than 30 colleges, denying that the ISC is Americandominated. They insisted that the NUS must belong to it if it were to be a world student influence.

But the conference itself did not produce a substantial battle. The delegates voted overwhelmingly for repatriation with the ISC.

The new president and secretary-elect, 25-year-old Geoff Martin and Trevor Fisk, are both moderates.