Rhodesia Drops Regent Plan

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 15

Rhodesia Drops Regent Plan

(NZ.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SALISBURY, Dec. 17. Mr lan Smith’s Rhodesian regime announced today it had dropped its original plan to appoint a regent in Rhodesia.

It said it did this “out of deference to her Majesty the Queen and members of the Royal Family." However, the announcement said Mr Clifford Dupont, appointed four weeks ago as “officer administering the Government of Rhodesia,” to replace the British-appointed

Governor, Sir Humphrey Gibbs, would retain this title Britain recognises only Sir Humphrey Gibbs as Queen Elizabeth’s representative in Rhodesia. The Smith regime had originally planned to appoint a regent in his place. A statement from Mr Smith’s office said: “The British Government has disgracefully dragged the Queen into the conflict between Rhodesia and Britain. “The Rhodesia Government has no desire to emulate this conduct and wishes to avoid involving her Majesty in any further unpleasantness that undoubtedly would be created by the Wilson Government if a ‘regent’ were appointed for Rhodesia.” The Smith regime an-

nounced its plan to appoint a regent after seizing independence last November 11, when Sir Humphrey Gibbs formally dismissed Mr Smith and his entire Cabinet. Loyalty to Queen The regent was to have emphasised that Rhodesia would maintain its loyalty to Queen Elizabeth and continue to acknowledge her as Monarch, in spite of severing its links with the British Government. Today's statement was the first amendment to the independence constitution proclaimed by the Smith regime. It said the Government had decided to drop the provision for appointing a regent within a fortnight, if the Queen did not approve of Mr Dupont as Governor-General. Two weeks ago the Queen declined to accept Mr Dupont, 59-year-old British-born lawyer, as Governor-General. A new paragraph added to the Constitution would now say, in effect, that until the Queen appointed a GovernorGeneral the officer administering the Government would be appointed by the executive council headed by the Prime Minister. Observers in Rhodesia saw this latest move as holding to the Smith policy of trying to maintain links with the British Crown while disregarding the authority of the