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Hero image for The Years Back - 11, A Place in Asia (Episode 11)

The Years Back - 11, A Place in Asia (Episode 11)

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1973

With the Second World War over, Kiwis stood with their more powerful allies in the occupation of Japan. But with Britain increasingly preoccupied with its home affairs and Europe, New Zealand began to set its own foreign policy agenda. In this episode of The Years Back presenter Bernard Kearns explains how New Zealand turned to its own backyard to create new export markets. That also meant military involvement in Korea and Malaya and a sometimes fumbling attempt at being a colonial power in the Pacific.

I think the problem was in New Zealand’s basic lack of concern for the welfare of the island peoples in those days and a complete lack of knowledge of how to be a colonial power. The dead hand, you might say, of the New Zealand public service was spread over all the islands trying to run them in the same way as they ran New Zealand.
– Sir Guy Powles, diplomat

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