.jpg)
Salient. Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 41 No. 4. March 20 1978
[Introduction]
Residing in the quietly protective environment of Federation House, number of people have come to regard as the world's most repressive Molesworth Street, Wellington, just a few minutes walk from the regime. At the National Anti-Apartheid Conference held last November, corridors of Parliament, are the representatives of what an increasing participants committed themselves to the ousting of the South African Consulate.
At the moment, Government's view is clearly that the Consulate should stay. The National Anti-Apartheid Council, responsible for co-ordinating the campaign for its removal (to be known as CEASAR, the Campaign to End All South African Representation) is not at all deterred by this policy. It is a relatively short time since the National Party had a policy of encouraging sporting contacts with South Africa.
The arguments being advanced for the Consulate's removal centre around the way in which the Consulate's presence serves the interests of South Africa's ruling white minority, which represents the majority vote of a mere 18% of South Africa's population. Its presence serves to build contacts in trade, travel, investment, cultural and sporting contacts, in fact all the things to which New Zealand has expressed its opposition in International Forums.
For instance, Mr. Talboys said to the United Nations General Assembly in October, 1977, "If the rest of the world makes it clear that they will have nothing to do with South Africa so long as it persists with its discriminatory policies, the pressure for change will sooner or later become irresistable..... we have minimal trade with South Africa and virtually no investment. We have supported the Swedish initiative calling for the ending of all new investments in South Africa . . . my Government is actively opposing sporting contacts." (1)
.jpg)
Mr and Mrs Lindhorst
At the same time, it is probable that the Consulate puts out more propaganda and achieves more publicity than any diplomatic mission in New Zealand.
The role of the Consulate may best be understood in its historical perspective. The South African Government was first allowed to open a Consulate in New Zealand in 1962, A.J. van Lille being the first Consul-General. New Zealand's then Prime Minister, K. Holyoake, stated that he "did not at present contemplate opening an office in South Africa where the British Embassy in Pretoria handled New Zealand Consular work." (2)
In early years the Consulate's work was low key, involving the issuing of visas and the establishment of contacts. Only rarely did the Consulate attract public attention, a notable occasion, in 1965, being the refusal to issue visas to two seamen wanting to go to Durban for the purpose of a tanker delivery, because they had coloured skin. (3)