Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

TV Interview for Australian TV

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Canberra, Australia
Source: Sunday Telegraph , 1 July 1979
Editorial comments: 1200 local time. Denis Warner reported for the Sunday Telegraph . The name of the TV company, the interviewer and the location have not been traced. A report in the Sunday Express , 1 July 1979, makes it clear that the Sunday Telegraph material is derived from the television interview.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 413

Queen's tour doubt

By DENIS WARNER in Canberra

Deep concern about the personal safety of the Queen at next month's Commonwealth conference in Zambia was expressed by Mrs. Thatcher in a television interview yesterday.

Arriving for a two-day visit to Australia, she said a decision would be made “very soon” on whether to approve the planned trip.

The conference site is near areas used by Zambian-based guerrillas fighting the government of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and only just over a mile from the latest incident a few days ago.

“We shall soon have to make up our minds about what advice to give the Queen on making the trip,” Mrs. Thatcher said.

“Of course I have to satisfy myself that all possible arrangements have been made for her safety.”

ADVICE SOUGHT

“The position at the moment is that the Queen will go unless we advise her not to.”

The Prime Minister said the British Government was being advised on the guerrilla situation by the Zambian government. Britain had also sent its own officials to Lusaka to study possible dangers to the Queen and was seeking advice from other heads of government.

Mrs. Thatcher also denounced the Vietnamese government for its forced expulsion of refugees, describing it as a callous, cold, cruel dictatorship.

Her statement echoed her private conversation earlier in the day with the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, the Foreign Minister, Mr. Peacock and senior Australian officials.

The private discussions and Mrs. Thatcher's interview brought into sharp focus the hardening British and Australian views of Hanoi for its treatment of its Chinese minority. [end p1]

AUSTRALIAN SUPPORT

Australia pledged full support for Mrs. Thatcher's initiative in calling for an international conference on refugees.

Vietnam was turning out people because they were Chinese and they wanted to get rid of them. The first job was to try to bring pressure on the Vietnamese. “After all,” she said, “it is a pretty bad advertisement for Communism.”

The second thing was to deal with those people who had been pitifully put out, having had everything taken from them at the price of allowing them to go. The reason why the refugees were being driven out should never be forgotten. “This is a Communist government in action,” Mrs. Thatcher said.

Asked about the Soviet Union's description of her as the “Iron Lady,” Mrs. Thatcher replied: “That is not a bad title to have.”