DUKE’S THOUGHTS ON RHODESIA’S FUTURE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30794, 5 July 1965, Page 19

DUKE’S THOUGHTS ON RHODESIA’S FUTURE

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

EDINBURGH, July 4.

The Duke of Edinburgh entered the controversy over the future of white-ruled Rhodesia with a warning against forcing the pace in the search for a solution when he spoke to Edinburgh University students on Commonwealth affairs.

“In the long run. it is better to spin out the process of the solution of these difficulties with patience, and therefore with a bit of luck to get a peaceful result, than to risk a blood-bath and many other unpredictable results by forcing the pace at this moment,” he said. “I think everybody recognises that the ultimate result is inevitable. I think a few sears here or there are not important if we can achieve this result peacefully and quietly.” His remarks came just a week after the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference, at which African governments demanded an early constitutional conference to bring about African majority rule in Rhodesia. Britain, which retains certain responsibilities for the self-governing colony, agreed to consider such a conference if its negotiations with the white-dominated Government

of Rhodesia did not develop satisfactorily within a reasonable time.

The Duke said African leaders needed sympathy and understanding, “particularly at this moment when they are caught up in a fierce propaganda battle which I think they would probably be delighted not to be in.”