Russian ships in NZ waters during the 1970s

[Dave Homewood]

Something I find a bit odd, while reading through articles in the old 1960s and 1970s newspapers. I have seen mention of Russian fishing vessels in New Zealand waters - both fishing inside the 12 and later 200 nautical mile exclusion zone, and even Russian refrigerated whaling ships in NZ ports after trips to Antarctic waters to refuel and take of provisions.

And lots of reports of Russian sailors who became injured or ill being transferred by RNZAF Iroquois helicopters from ships to Wellington or Christchurch hospitals for treatment, etc.

But the Cold War was at its height during the 1960s and 1970s were we not technically at war with the Communist powers? New Zealand had fought them in Malaya, Korea and Viet Nam.

Was the New Zealand government selling the Russian fishing companies fishing rights? And was there some amnesty to sailors and ships to come into our ports?

It seems really odd to allow Soviet vessels to have free run of NZ waters and visiting rights to our ports, while our Defence Force was away fighting to stop the spread of communism into this region. Was there no concern about possible spying or sabotage?

Puzzling.

[tbf2504]

Hi Dave,
in our history of the Andover which is currently being developed, I have included an article on a Fisheries patrol that I flew on NZ7621 on 9 February 1978. During that patrol around the lower south island we spotted several Russian
fishing trawlers and in Pegasus Bay we saw a mother factory ship and trawlers. I took photos of some of them which will be in the article.
From my understanding the Russians along with other foreign countries (Tawian for example) had licences to fish in designated zones around NZ during those years.

[Dave Homewood]

Doesn't that seem odd that we had Orions and frigates to keep Russian ships away, and then we also allowed Russian ships in to fish and berth here?

[denysjones]

Perhaps I can provide a little insight Dave, from my working for Geo H Scales Ltd, now known as Scales Corporation, from the 1980s.

The company history in simple terms included the fact that during WW2 the Soviets were given access to the NZ wool clip by the British, to be used to make winter weight uniforms. This led to Soviet ships from their Far East ports such as Vladivostok daring the run down through the Pacific to collect it. Scales were a major player, as a ship charterer and agent, in the shipment of NZ wool to the UK pre-war and became the facilitating representative agent in NZ for the Soviet ships coming to collect the wool.

I don't think you're right about us being "technically at war" as it is obvious that the NZ Government of time didn't block things when after the war Scales contacts with the Soviets then led to them being agents for Baltic Shipping who became part of a consortium of European shipping lines coming to NZ. So obviously there was never any NZ Government consideration of not trading with the Soviets at that early stage. Possibly it was a case of Soviet money being as good as anyone else's in the process of rebuilding our own post-war economy (remember that the US dollar was and probably still is dominant as the currency for such trade matters).

When I first became involved with Scales there was even a resident Soviet in Scales office as a local representative for Baltic Shipping, albeit that Internal Affairs paid close attention to his physical movements around the country. That point would suggest that there was concern around spying but that he would be tracked. When Scales head office was relocated back to Christchurch from Wellington in the 1980s I recall there was some application had to be made to get approval for the incumbent Soviet to relocate.

Right up till the collapse of the Soviet Union Scales continued in assorted relationships as shipping agents for Soviet lines as well as commodity trading. Also remember that the Dairy Board had a subsidiary company, SOVENZ, which handled their exports to the Soviets. That's further indication to me that the money consideration out weighed the spying risk.

A point of interest not only did ships come to our ports but also aircraft as I recall several instances of those bringing in replacement crews for trawlers.

hth

[davidd]

The phrase "Cold War" as mentioned in original article says it all, so long as a country (such as Soviet Russia) did not openly attack or molest a country that we were "friendly" with, then they were still our "friends" too for the purposes of trade. Everybody had to play by the rules if sweetness and light were to remain shining over the seas of the World, so Soviet Russia was able to indulge in trade and secure what they could not produce themselves, including foreign goods which may have contained patented ideas or components or new technologies as a short cut to improving their technologies.

I have finally got around to reading the book "Mask of Treachery" (John Costello, 1988) which is aimed at the Cambridge spies (Blunt, Burgess, McLean and Philby), well worth a read if you are prepared to wade through it (761 pages including notes, indexes, etc.) The Soviets have been on the job in these endeavours since the very early 1920, probably earlier, but then everybody was at it in those days! (and still are of course).

[Dave Homewood]

I am quite amazed. New Zealand was fighting communism for decades in Malaya, in Korea and in Vietnam. We had a massive military presence stationed in Singapore for decades to help stop communism spreading south.

I always assumed we, as a nation, did not like the commies (apart from those Labour party and Unionist sympathisers who love communism).

And we were in defence pacts with Britain, the USA, Australia, Singapore and other nations, for the reason of stopping the spread of communism, and maintaining regional stability, militarily. Our Allies were actively engaged in the Cold War, so I assumed we also played our part.

I genuinely had no idea that New Zealand was happy to trade with the communists whilst also going to war with their idealism. I thought there would have been international sanctions in place to stop such trade. I mean, call me naïve but why were we not allowed to trade with South Africa for their idealism but we were fine with the Soviets who also oppressed millions and threatened world peace?

So, were our Allies like Britain and the USA also trading with the Russians or other communist nations during the Cold War? And if not, did those countries view New Zealand's dealing with them unpalatable?

[nuuumannn]

Sept 18, 2022 19:59:41 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I always assumed we, as a nation, did not like the commies (apart from those Labour party and Unionist sympathisers who love communism).

Living up to the right-wing hype, there Dave, you might be surprised that it was under a conservative government that New Zealand came the closest of any Western First World nation to the creation of a socialist utopia. Bear with me as this certainly ties in with the visits to NZ waters by Soviet fishing boats. NZ traded with the Soviet Union in the 70s, Ladas and Skodas were sold here, Soviet agricultural equipment came here, the fishing boats came here, but they were closely monitored by the intelligence services. Listening stations reported on their transmissions - the Soviets used Morse extensively for communications at sea before satellite comms became prevalent and most of the information from these fishing boats were about where the best catches were to be had, etc, the Soviet spy boats with their comms arrays were different, of course. Despite this odd turn of events, Soviet fishing boats were specified to be considered as "units of the Soviet Navy" among the intel services.

Yet, the trading that went on with the SU was a peculiarity. In the 1970s and early 80s, New Zealand became a unique beast in Western democracies. Under Muldoon, the country was known as "Fortress New Zealand" because of its draconian trade policies. While ordinary NZers enjoyed a good-ish, if not high standard of living, a "cradle-to-the-grave welfare" state, goods and services provided by the government, everything was highly regulated and strictly controlled. We paid high taxes to receive welfare, we had two government-controlled broadcasting networks, imports were closely monitored, if anyone wanted to bring anything into the country, a permit had to be sought, industries were heavily subsidised, starting new businesses had to be paid for etc - almost every aspect of day-to-day life was controlled centrally. By the early 1980s NZ was one of the most heavily regulated countries in the world. Bureaucracy ruled the roost here and foreign investment just didn't happen. The problem was the country was almost bankrupt by the 80s.

Anyway, the trade situation with the Soviet Union was by no means unique, the SU and the USA had an import agreement for grain (wheat and corn) throughout the 70s and early 80s brought about as a result of Soviet missteps with enforced collectivisation of agriculture, which caused crop shortages and a mass famine. Things are not always black and white; while we were sending off troops to guard against the spread of communism, our government was doing its best to replicate the socialist ideal back home whilst trading with the very system our armed forces were defending against.

[tbf2504]

Ironically, the USA imported titanium from Russia in the 1970s-80s as they had the largest sources of this important material

[johnnyfalcon]

New Zealands largest trading partner today has major human rights issues and subscribes to a controlling ideology