Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 25. No. 11. 1962
Brigadier Gilbert Counter-attacks
Brigadier Gilbert Counter-attacks
At the annual conference of New Zealand's major "patriotic" organisation, the R.S.A., in June of this year, Brigadier Gilbert made a speech on the dangers of communism and called for witch-hunts against local reds. In this incredible diatribe he claimed that the problem facing S.E. Asian countries was communist infiltration and that hunger was not "a universal problem in the area". He also managed to put in a good word for the pro-western dictatorships in the area, claiming that these were "by no means oppressive or malignant in the context of local conditions".
At that time this speech received scant attention from the press, except for a few to be expected exceptions. The counter-attack had failed!