Britain, U.S. And France Asked To Stop S.A. Trade

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31239, 10 December 1966, Page 15

Britain, U.S. And France Asked To Stop S.A. Trade

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

NEW YORK, December 9. Britain, the United States and France have been formally asked to take urgent steps to halt their trade and co-operation with South Africa.

The request came in a 23-nation AfricanAsian resolution tabled yesterday in the 121-nation Special Political Committee, which is debating apartheid.

Though the draft contained the usual demand for mandatory economic sanctions against South Africa, the diplomat who presented the document, Mr Achkar Marof, of Guinea, recognised that the measures could not be imposed without the backing of the Western Powers. The resolution would “draw the attention of the main trading partners of the Republic of South Africa to the fact that their increasing collaboration with the South African Government, in spite of repeated appeals by the General Assembly, has aggravated the danger of a violent conflict.”

It would therefore request them “to take urgent steps towards disengagement from South Africa and to facilitate effective action, under the auspices of the United Nations, to secure the elimination of apartheid.” Not Named The draft did not name any countries, but it made quite clear that its request was aimed at Britain, the United States and France, by referring to “three permanent members of the Security Council.” The sponsoring nations appealed to all States to stop selling arms, ammunition and military equipment to South Africa immediately. During the debate, the Soviet delegate, Mr Platon Morozov said the economic policy of the United States, Britain, and West Germany contradicted the pious declarations and utterances they made against apartheid. He said the Western Powers had become protectors of the

racist creators of “an overt Fascist dictatorship” in which 14 million non-whites were under colonial bondage. Tremendous profit derived by the Western Powers from their monopoly-building in South Africa prompted them to ignore all United Nations resolutions on apartheid, he said. Punitive Sanctions Mr Morozov pressed hard for punitive economic sanctions against South Africa. Modern weapons, rockets, jet aircraft and submarines supplied by the Western Powers in continuing disregard of United Nations decisions gave South Africa the military strength to threaten the whole of Africa, he claimed. The Russian delegate gave a warning that Rhodesia was bent on following the principles of apartheid. He quoted Mr lan Smith, the Rhodesian leader, as saying in a newspaper article that South Africa would give him not only sympathy but assistance “when the time comes.” Mr Hans Tabor, of Denmark, asked the committee to reaffirm its belief that universal economic sanctions should

be applied against South Africa. Denmark was in no doubt that sanctions were the only means by which a peaceful solution to the problem could be achieved, he said. “The South African Government challenges the whole world by maintaining an anachronistic system which must recall memories of an unsurpassed tyranny in the history of mankind in the very heart of Europe only two decades ago.” By persisting with its apartheid policies, the Pretoria Government was inciting “a violent racial conflict which threatens to set the whole country ablaze,” Mr Tabor said.