Rhodesia Backs Welensky’s Stand

Press, Volume C, Issue 29454, 4 March 1961, Page 11

Rhodesia Backs Welensky’s Stand

(Rec. 9 p.m.) SALISBURY, March 3. Sir Roy Welensky will leave for London today for new talks with the Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan, and the Colonial Secretary, Mr lain Macleod, on a constitution for Northern Rhodesia with solid backing from the Federal Rhodesian Assembly for his rejection of Britain’s proposals.

The Rhodesian Federal Prime Minister threatened to resign if the British Government did not give way, but he said he hoped Rhodesia would not be forced into considering drastic measures to resist the proposals. He obtained overwhelming support in the Federal Assembly for his motion seeking the support of the House in his stand against the British constitutional proposals for Northern Rhodesia. Of 51 members. 44 voted in favour of the motion. In his address before the vote, Sir Roy Welensky said he did not believe it was possible to “put up shutters against the winds of change We are perfectly willing to accommodate ourselves to them in the right way and in the right degree. "I see no Inconsistency between the principle of retaining control of government in responsible hands and the principle of accepting that there are very good and compelling reasons why Africans should be associated with the processes of government, notwithstanding that the majority of them have not generally attained the standards

which we hold to be necessary for the fullest exercise of democratic privileges.” he said. African Advance “I suppose it is a waste of time and energy to point out that Africans in this part of the world have never advanced so much before in all walks of life as they have in the seven years of federation.” he said. “The United Kingdom Government is placing me and my Government in the totally false position of appearing to obstruct African advancement The United Kingdom Government has no real resnon'ibility in this part of Africa. It is of no immediate and vital concern whether we starve or prosper, whether we conduct our affair- well or badly." Sir Roy Welensky said

In the councils of the world it was "fashionable to prostrate oneself before every kind of pressure, provided that ft borrows the cloak of self-determination. nationalism. or anti-imnerialism—or half a dozen, other expressions that the Communist world has invented to subvert the structure of societies which they have not yet converted to their own ideology "In deference to those pressures—and this is what I hold against the United Kingdom Government they offer blandishments in the way of political advancement that mean nothing tn terms of real advancement, but constitute a serious threat to the standards on which real advancement is based When we resist them, we appear to be enemies of advancement.” Sir Roy Welensky said the simple truth was that by standing by its principles, the Federal Government was serving the best interests of the vast mass of the African people.