Talks On Rhodesia Crisis Planned

Press, Volume C, Issue 29448, 25 February 1961, Page 11

Talks On Rhodesia Crisis Planned

(Rec. 11 p,m.) LUSAKA, February 24. The Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Sir Evelyn Hone, is to open talks with party leaders on the constitutional crisis in the wake of warnings by responsible officials that the situation is “highly explosive.” In a radio broadcast last night, the Governor said he would seek the leaders’ views shortly on “the various important details which remain for consideration in the constitutional scheme.”

He called on members of all races to remain calm and to avoid provocative action.

A call to remain calm was also made by the secretarygeneral of the United National Independence Party, Mr M Sipalo, to a crowd of Africans in Lusaka yesterday. “Let us not be provoked by steel-helemeted police and the Federal Army. Remain calm and peaceful in thought and deed,” he said.

A party delegate who has just returned from the London talks, Mr Simon Kapwepwe. said: “We went Mr Macleod (the British Colonial Secretary) and Mr Macmillan to send their troops here to protect us.” The “Daily Telegraph” reported in London that Mr Macleod stood firmly behind his constitutional proposals when he attended a private meeting of the Conservative Committee on Commonwealth and Colonial Affairs last night. Independence Opposed Salisbury's African newspaper, the "Daily News,” said in a leading article today that if the Federal Parliament supported a demand by Sir Roy

Welensky for independence for the federation, “the vast majority of the African population will stand foursquare against them.” The newspaper said that either Sir Roy Welensky or Mr Macleod would be ‘ buried in the debris” that is bound to fall down in the next few days.

The official feeling in Northern Rhodesia is that the British Government cannot afford to go back on its proposals for African advancement in the new White Paper.

On the other hand, observers say Sir Roy Welensky has apparently gone so far out on a limb that it is difficult to see him retreating. He has most Europeans firmly be-

hind him, apart from a handful of liberals.'

The present outlook could thus develop into a head-on collison with the Federal Government trying to impose its own solution on Northern Rhodesia. This will be resisted by the local representatives of the British Crown, from the Governor down.

The main anxiety is that such a clash could set off a chain reaction of bloody incidents between white and black.

In turn, this could bring an appeal from the Governor for British troops to restore order. Such an eventuality would mean a state of war between Britain and the federation.