1960: New Zealand PM Meets Khrushchev
April 20, 2024
By AHNZ
20 April 1960: New Zealand Prime Minister Walter Nash held talks with USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev for 6 hours in total. We were 7 months out from a General Election which would boot out Nash’s Labour 2.0 Ministry.
New Zealand had had enough of Commies.
Walter apparently upset Nikita a bit by mentioning how his grandfather had attacked the Russians in the Crimean War. “He tried to take our country from us!” said Khruschev. But Nash offered, perhaps by way of apology, that his grandfather had returned home from the war and died of his wounds. So that was something?
“A visible cloud passed across Mr Khrushchev’s face. “You mean he came here to attack us,” he said. The conversation turned to other things, but Mr Khrushchev kept returning to Mr Nash’s grandfather and mentioned it five or six times..”Your grandfather came here I and tried to take the country i from us.” said Mr Khrushchci eventually. ” – Press (1960,) Papers Past
This was the month after Nash had tried to win votes by illegally “opening” a railway between Blenheim and Nelson that never eventuated. Ref. 1960: Nelson-Blenheim Railway, AHNZ
The bad reputation of Labour 2.0’s Black Budget was still heavy. Meanwhile, the once and future Prime Minister, Keith Holyoake, had been making tours around South-East Asia to make him look good to us. And, his campaign signals of “greater personal freedom..individual liberty..and more opportunity to lead your own lives..” won out over Nash’s old Lefty campaign. Ref. 1959: Keith Trek, AHNZ
Walter Nash would stick around as a Back Bencher, the last of the old Labour 1.0 breed, dying in office on 4 June 1968.
Walter Nash’s grandson, Stuart, was a Minister in the Labour 6.0 Ministry until being expelled for being caught for being politically corrupt. But also, in my opinion, he wanted to be the next Prime Minister Nash and a rival faction within his party wanted that stopped. Better than an ice pick in the back of the skull, Comrade!
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Image ref. Archives New Zealand; AHNZ colour (2024)
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