Uneasy Wait In Salisbury

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30884, 18 October 1965, Page 15

Uneasy Wait In Salisbury

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) SALISBURY, Oct. 17. Rhodesians waited uneasily today as the Prime Minister, Mr lan Smith, prepared his reply to Britain’s call for a Commonwealth mission to settle the Rhodesian independence crisis.

Mr Smith has promised to reply tomorrow to the British Prime Minister, Mr Wilson.

After conferring informally with Cabinet Ministers yesterday. Mr Smith rested over the week-end. His only work, he said, was finalising the wording of “this letter to Mr Wilson.”

Mr Wilson proposer, last Tuesday that a mission of Commonwealth Prime Ministers should try to resolve the issue—Rhodesia’s demand for independence now, under white rule, and Britain's adamant refusal to grant it.

Mr Smith said that tomor-

row he hopes to hold th: news conference he promised when he arrived back from the fruitless negotiations with British leaders in London. He did not reveal when he would call the crucial Cabinet meeting, at which, he says, the decision will be taken whether to declare independence unilaterally. The next regular Cabinet meeting will be on Tuesday, but Mr Smith has said it could meet earlier.