State Of Emergency In Nyasaland Ends

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29232, 16 June 1960, Page 13

State Of Emergency In Nyasaland Ends

(Rec. 10 p.m.) ZOMBA (Nyasaland), June 15. The 15-month-old state of emergency in Nyasaland will end tomorrow, the Governor, Sir Robert Armitage, announced today. A small number of persons detained under the emergency regulations will remain in detention until the Governor is satisfied they can be released “without serious prejudice to public safety and order.” The Governor will retain the power to control meetings and the people’s movements about the country.

Sir Robert Armitage said conditions in the territory were still not wholly normal, but he felt it was possible to abandon the emergency without endangering public order. According to British United Press, the number still detained is 20. When the emergency was proclaimed in March last year 1300 were detained without trial. Sir Robert Armitage said the situation had continued to improve since he told the Legislative Council in May he hoped it would be possible to end the emergency in a few weeks. While there had not yet been a full return to normal, the Government’s power to deal with the situation had been enhanced by the enactment of the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance and the Detained Persons (Special Provisions) Ordinance. In addition .to the new legislation, he was retaining powers to maintain “in place of all the emergency regulations which now lapse, two measures relating to the control of meetings and to the residence and movement of persons.” These powers, which would be continuously reviewed, were “the

minimum necessary to bring the territory peacefully through the transition period to a restoration of normal conditions.”

Reuters said political observers believed the lifting of the emergency would be followed by British agreement to an African majority in Nyasaland’s Legislative Council, which is the protectorate’s Parliament.

The Malawi Congress Party now had its eyes fixed optimistically on the talks which its leader. Dr. Hastings Banda, will have with the British Colonial Secretary, Mr lain Macleod, in London at the end of next month.

Dr. Banda, who demands “selfgovernment now” for his country—the smaUest and poorest in the Rhodesian Federation—is due to discuss Nyasaland’s political advancement. The talks are not expected to include the wider federal problem, but are likely to result in a timetable for greater autonomy for Nyasaland within the federation.

Observers believe there is no question of Nyasaland seceding from the federation.