"Sanctions Need Time’

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31000, 4 March 1966, Page 13

"Sanctions Need Time ’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON, March 2. Mr Wilson has urged African leaders to give Britain more time for its economic sanctions to topple Mr lan Smith’s breakaway Rhodesia regime, British officials said today.

Mr Wilson has warned that any attempt to use force to settle the crisis would cause suffering for both Africans and Europeans in Rhodesia, and possibly in neighbouring Zambia as well, the officials added.

Mr Wilson’s fresh statement on Rhodesia’s breach with Britain was made in a personal message sent last week-end to Emperor Haile Selassie, of Ethiopia, as host of the’ Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the Organisation of African Unity, which opened in Addis Ababa on Monday. The British Prime Minis-

ter, the officials said, again i set out his Government’s case on the handling of the] crisis, and cautioned that eco-: nomic sanctions were not necessarily a quick process. New Assessment Political observers said Mr Wilson’s move was clearly the result of new assessments made since he told the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference in Lagos last t January that the effect of ecoj nomic sanctions could be calj culated “in weeks rather s than months.” Since then, the flow of oil

from South Africa into Rhodesia has increased. Britain has several times expressed concern over this development. Mr Wilson’s warning about the use of force is in line with a number of efforts he has made to prevent a worsening of the crisis since Mr Smith’s regime seized independence.