Insistence On Majority Rule

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 13

Insistence On Majority Rule

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter— Copyright)

DAR ES SALAAM, September 10. President Nyerere, of Tanzania, said today that now the Rhodesian issue was clear it should be possible for the Commonwealth leaders, meeting in London, to insist that majority rule before independence was a Commonwealth requirement.

He said this conclusion should go into the communique to be issued at the end of the London talks. It would then be up to the British Prime Minister (Mr Wilson) if he could not agree with this course, to dissociate himself from the communique if he wished. President Nyerere was commenting on progress

made at the talks. He said it had been impossible for him to go to London because Tanzania had no diplomatic relations with Britain. His absence might well have helped to clarify the Rhodesian issue, which was now

clear. All delegations had demanded a commitment that indepedence for Rhodesia would come only after majority rule. The Canadian Prime Minister (Mr Pearson) had also said that it would be difficult for Mr Wilson now to ignore the request and act as if it was of no importance. The defeat of Mr lan Smith was essential, but there was no point in bringing down an illegal minority regime to replace it by a legal minority regime, said President Nyerere.