Smith Prepared To Negotiate

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 7

Smith Prepared To Negotiate

LONDON, September 8. Mr lan Smith, the Southern Rhodesia Prime Minister, said in London on Sunday: “I am more optimistic than I have ever been that we can negotiate independence with the British Government”

Mr Smith had flown from Portugal to talks with Sir Alec Douglas-Home on the future of Southern Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia has threatened to take unilateral action to get independence in defiance of Britain if there is failure in the London negotiations, Which Mr Smith has described as a “final bid.” Asked if he had come to negotiate or make demands for independence, Mr Smith said: “I believe I am a reasonable man and to make demands without being prepared to negotiate would be unreasonable.

“I am going into these discussions with certain ideas of my own. If the discussions are unsuccessful I will go back and put the pros and cons to the electorate and they will make the decision. They will be the people to decide.” ■ Mr Smith firmly repeated his previous statements that Southern Rhodesia was prepared to declare independence unilaterally if necessary, but he said there was no deadline for the negotiations. “I am trying desperately hard to achieve negotiated independence,” he said. "For us to declare ourselves independent without the agreement of the British Government would be a last ditch stand.” Questioned on whether he would be prepared to accept an African majority in his

lifetime, Mr Smith said: “This is something which takes time—an evolutionary process, not a revolutionary process.”