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PAGE 10
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 1, 1985
debt. Tom Cur1, a farmer from Clinton, I11•••said: "Our debt is
second only to the federal government's.
We are forced to
compete with the federal government for credit.
We have
substituted credit for profit to the point where we've used up
our equity. Our net income the last several years has not been
sufficient to even service the interest on that debt."
More on ANZUS: The Key Role Played by Australia
So far, New Zealand has drawn the spotlight in the brewing ANZUS cr1s1s.
Prime Minister David Lange is presently on a tour of Europe, explaining his
government's non-nuclear stance. He explained his position while in Los
Angeles on a brief stopover. On network television, the outspoken Mr.
Lange generally portrayed himself in the underdog role; it was Washington,
not Wellington, he maintained, that threatened the breakup of ANZUS. Asked
whether the U.S. could be expected to continue to defend New Zealand with
its "nuclear umbrella" he emphatically replied that his government no
longer wanted such a covering, that New Zealand was more secure without it.
However, many experts emphasize that the real country to watch is Austral
ia, chiefly due to the highly sophisticated American military installations
located there. Loss of these facilities would have a sizable impact on the
extension of U.S. power in the Pacific, and would affect American security
itself. Because of the strategic importance of these installations, the
U.S. chose to go easy on Prime Minister Bob Hawke when he announced his gov
ernment was cancelling participation in an MX trans-Pacific missile test.
Here first are excerpts of an article in the February 10 SUNDAY TIMES of
Britain:
The blunt answer is that New Zealand does not matter much to
America's defence strategy. Australia does, because it houses
three crucial American military bases.
At Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, there is a satellite receiving
station, codenamed "Merino," which is the principal collection
point for information from America's spy satellites which pass
over Russia and China on a north-south polar orbit•••• The moni
toring station•••relays the information to the National Security
Agency at Fort Mead, Maryland, near Washington, for analysis.
Six hundred miles south of Alice Springs at Nurrangar, a second
station, codenamed "Casino," receives what is called "imagery"-
high-definition television pictures from the satellites, which is
then transmitted to Washington for analysis by the CIA.
The third major U.S. base in Australia, at North West Cape, is
perhaps the most important.
It consists of three naval
communication installations•••• The third and most awesome [ of
these 1 is a 5,500-acre, 2m watt "extra low frequency" radio
transmission station. This is used to relay orders to American
submarines at sea, and is the largest of the three principal U.S.
submarine transmitting stations in the world. It is also the
only station outside America.
Without it, the nuclear-armed
submarines .Q!1 which America's defence partly rests could not
operate in the Pacific.