TNAG-0925-FCO40-1143-Commonwealth-Parliamentary-Association-(CPA)-annual-conferen-1980 — Page 38

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Twenty-fifth Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference

only militarily but also for economic assistance and equal trade opportunities, so that established democracies in small countries such as The Gambia could be maintained.

The opinion that Britain was becoming too greatly absorbed in Europe and was to so degree diminishing itself by so doing was expressed by a delegate from Australia. Whi sympathising with Britain's difficulties, Australians did not want the British economy to be weakened. When the EEC reached the stage of imposing embargoes, as it must do, other countries would be involved and Britain might suffer economically.

A Cook Islands delegate expressed concern at New Zealand's decision to send police officers to the Cook Islands, and reminded New Zealand that it was constitutionally responsible for the military security of the Cook Islands, not the internal security. There was a need for moral, not military, rearmament; and he appealed to France to remove its nuclear testing facilities from Mururoa.

In the view of a Canadian delegate, the security of smaller Commonwealth countries depended on the security of larger Commonwealth countries, and co-operation within the Commonwealth generally. Canada joined with the Cook Islands in condemning French nuclear testing in the Pacific.