“War In Rhodesia If Blacks Given Rule9’

Press, Volume C, Issue 29435, 10 February 1961, Page 13

“War In Rhodesia If Blacks Given Rule 9 ’

SALISBURY (Southern Rhodesia), February 9.

The Southern Rhodesia Premier (Sir Edgar Whitehead) said in a broadcast last night that any attempt to introduce black supremacy in the colony “could only end in bloody civil war.”

He announced he intended to hold a referendum about next June on the new constitutional proposals which were agreed at the Southern Rhodesia constitutional talks on Wednesday.

These provide for increased African representation and franchise and the abandoning of certain powers reserved up till now in Britain. Sir Edgar Whitehead said in his broadcast that the colony had arrived at the parting of the ways, with three choices before it. They were “an attempt to maintain white supremacy by force; an attempt to introduce black supremacy, which could only end in bloody civil war; or a genuine determination by the races to work together within the same political framework and same political parties with the avowed intention of developing the country at the utmost speed for its inhabitants.” He said that if the voters approved the new constitutional proposals the colony would still not have achieved complete independence. "But United Kingdom participation in our internal affairs will have ceased . in practice it will be impossible for any future United Kingdom Government to put the clock back.” he added

I Mr Joshua Nkomo, leader of the National Democratic | (African Nationalised) Party, said yesterday his party would neither “support nor stand in the way of” the constitutional proposals, though it rejected them. It still stuck to its demands for universal adult suffrage but would give the new proposals a fair trial.