New Zealand an Asian Country

There was no point in sending students on study tours to Asian countries, said Bill Faulkner to International Affairs sub-committee.

Reporting on his recent trip to the Asian region seminar at Kuala Lumpur. Faulkner said we should avoid sending students on "holidays" to Asia. They made a few friends but had little real impact.

Faulkner said he had supported ideas for community development schemes. Such schemes, dealing with illiteracy, public health, social services and agricultural extension work, were already operating in India, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. He would like to see New Zealand send students over to help with these schemes.

"Asians would see New Zealanders as they really are—willing to work," he said.

Other delegates had little knowledge of New Zealand or New Zealanders when the seminar began. He and Peter Rankin the other N.Z.U.S.A. delegate told the seminar that they were not well informed on Asian problems. Some of the Australian delegates raised their eyebrows at this, but it paid off better than the Australian policy of telling other delegates how they should run their development schemes and the "This is how we do it" altitude.

The New Zealand delegation arrived as an unknown quantity but had done a lot to increase New Zealand prestige at the seminar.

Faulkner was unanimously elected to the drafting committee of the seminar.

He suggested that the subcommittee could investigate the Iranian delegation's claim that the Israelites were occupying land to which they had no rightful claim. Another point of interest was that India, the largest democracy in Asia wanted a larger vote than other delegations at the seminar. Faulkner said precedents for this had been established by the United States and Indonesia al other types of conferences.

The New Zealand delegation told the seminar that New Zealand's future was tied economically with Asia. Faulkner said that New Zealanders should start considering themselves as Asians.

"The industrial development of Australia and the agricultural development of New Zealand are very important to Asia but the approach must come from us. They won't make the move.

"It would be a two-way thing. If New Zealand decided to do community work in New Zealand or the Pacific Islands or sponsor work camps in Asian countries, as Australia had done, it could all on other countries to help.

"It would not be a holiday but would be something definite and constructive," he said.

One of the staggering features of the seminar was the lack of knowledge of many delegates about the needs of their own countries. They were dressed like smart young executives with a better standard of living than the New Zealand student. They were the elite—completely detached from the problems of the masses. They were able to talk economic schemes with the best but, with some notable exceptions, were not prepared to go out and work amongst the common people.

Faulkner felt some effort should be made to reduce the gap between the elite and the masses.