143:, about which McIntosh and the government of the day were decidedly negative. At the Sydney planning meeting in May 1950, Reid was surprisingly elected to chair the preparatory committee of officials drafting a plan for Technical Assistance, despite New Zealand's reluctance to commit money to anything. Again surprisingly, he mediated the desire of the Asian delegations to see this fast-tracked effectively enough to have Technical Assistance emerge as the unexpected main event for immediate action, rather than the controversial Australian scheme for capital assistance on the model of the Marshall Plan in Europe. At the subsequent 'Consultative Committee' meeting in Colombo (Feb 1951), he chaired the drafting committee for the final report. He represented New Zealand at the other Colombo Plan and
89:, with overall responsibility for implementing the ambitious Labour platform of social welfare. He soon began calling on John Reid to assist in the drafting of the enabling legislation, and encouraged him to join the Public Service as Assistant Law Draftsman in 1938. As a key member of the committee tasked with devising for Nash an affordable universal pension scheme, he wrote a much-cited summary to Nash on 23 March 1938 outlining a universal pension of 10 shillings a week at 65,and a means-tested pension of 30 shillings at 60 for those unable to provide for themselves. Keith Sinclair argues that it was "this suggestion made initially by John S. Reid", that "laid the basis for the first universal pension scheme in the world". The scheme was built into the
69:, the eldest of five children of Scottish-born John Reid (1874-1950), a worker in the nearby Railway Workshops, and Alice, née Bernard (1876-1953), New Zealand-born grand-daughter of an Anglo-Irish Church of Ireland clergyman. He was among the first from Petone to achieve a university degree, studying law part-time at Victoria University College while working in the Crown Law Office. He graduated and began practising law in 1923, initially in Christchurch, and then in Marton, Taihape and Putaruru, before opening his own practice in Lower Hutt in 1927. On 6 October 1926 he married Wellington schoolteacher Doris Aileen Priestley (1900-1987), born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, from a long line of Methodist clergy.
171:(Italy). In this case he found himself in a conservative minority of one over the issue of demanding a rapid timetable for independence. In relation to Ruanda-Urundi Reid "feared there would be violent outbreaks" between Tutsi and Hutu unless the Belgians adopted a very different strategy before independence. Ramon Sears, representing the US, created a majority on several of these issues by joining the more anti-colonial members from India and El Salvador. Sears was, however, overruled by the State Department, and the Trusteeship Council at its meeting in December 1954 incorporated the Reid minority report into the official report of the mission.
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These roles drew the attention of the UN's infant
Technical Assistance Board, when in 1951-2 it was looking for a senior figure to represent it in Jakarta, who might be able to overcome the sensitivity of the nationalist government about taking advice from patronising neo-colonials. Reid took up the
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tour of Japan in 1958, a big moment in Japan rugby which saw Reid become Patron of the Rugby Union of Japan. He was also able to host his old friend Walter Nash, making the first New
Zealand Prime Ministerial visit to Japan. In 1961 he was posted as High Commissioner to Canada. Health concerns of
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in late 1941, while keeping his other roles in
Cabinet. He asked John Reid to accompany him during his first period in Washington (January 1942 to April 1943) but Reid declined to leave his large family in the middle of a threatening war. On the second, in December 1943, he agreed to go as First
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World War II convinced New
Zealand (like Australia) that it could no longer depend exclusively on Britain for its protection and foreign policy, but urgently needed representation in the U.S.. Lacking experienced personnel, the Government appointed workaholic Walter Nash himself as its first
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Reid was frequently in charge of the tiny mission in
Washington, since both Nash and Berendsen were in demand for the constant round of post-war conferences, while Berendsen came to love the US lecture circuit. His most significant impact was in representing New Zealand on the
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position in July 1952, as the UN's first
Resident Representative in Indonesia. His final report, at the end of 1953, revealed the frustrations of trying to coordinate a range of independent-minded UN specialist organisations with the priorities of the Indonesian government.
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himself and his wife dictated an early retirement and return to
Wellington in 1964. Among various retirement tasks was as President of the Walter Nash Vietnam Memorial Appeal, which succeeded in building a children's hospital at Qui Nhon, South Vietnam, in the late 1960s.
123:, McIntosh's former mentor in Wellington, who also found Reid essential, was he accepted as a permanent part of the diplomatic service. His four children were then able to join him and Aileen in Washington.
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in 1948, leading New
Zealand to part company with the more defensive administering powers, on one occasion voting (with USSR) against Britain over its self-satisfied report on Tanganyika.
49:(25 March 1901 – 24 August 1985) was a New Zealand lawyer, public servant and diplomat. He served as first United Nations Resident Representative in Indonesia (1952–53), and
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In 1956 Reid was posted to Tokyo as New
Zealand's first Minister to Japan, with the post upgraded to Ambassador in 1958. A highlight was the first
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meetings in 1950-52, presenting as positive a face as possible on New
Zealand's then reluctance to incur responsibilities of any kind in Asia.
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In 1954 the UN Trusteeship Council entrusted Reid to chair its regular 3-yearly Visiting Mission to the Trust Territories in East Africa: -
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https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/239386036?keyword=New%20Zealand%27s%20Early%20Steps%20in%20Asia%3A%20A%20Biography%20of%20John%20S.%20Reid
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T1142 in the Official Records of the 15th Session of the Trusteeship Council, supplement 3; B.T. G. Chidzero,
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Anthony Reid, 'New Zealand’s Early Steps in Asia: A Biography of John S. Reid and Family' (Canberra, 2020).
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During the Great Depression of 1929-35, John Reid assisted the Labour member of Parliament for the Hutt,
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Back in Wellington, Reid was left to handle the ambitious Australia-initiated project that became the
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Secretary with special responsibility for the economic relations with the U.S. through
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Undiplomatic Dialogue: Letters between Carl Berendsen and Alister McIntosh
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The Politics of Social Security: The 1938 Act and some later developments
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242:(Oxford University Press, 1961), pp.164-6; John S. Reid,
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John Reid was born in the then largely working-class
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34:Jack Reid (politician)
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151:United Nations Tasks
297:People from Petone
212:Elizabeth Hansen,
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65:suburb of
63:Lower Hutt
57:Early life
246:, 1978.
67:Petone
188:Notes
145:ECAFE
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