CHURCHES' ASSEMBLY Kaunda Attacks Rich Nations

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31725, 8 July 1968, Page 11

CHURCHES ' ASSEMBLY Kaunda Attacks Rich Nations

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

UPPSALA (Sweden), July 7.

The President of Zambia (Dr Kaunda) last night attacked rich nations for having “prejudices and cynical attitudes’’ towards the underdeveloped countries.

Addressing the World Council of Churches Assembly at Uppsala, he said that in today’s world “more is being given to those who have—and from the poor, the least they need is being taken away to pay the rich.”

President Kaunda told the 800 delegates that the present decade had so far been one

of “disappointment and disillusionment for the newlyindependent nations, and in the present way of international living, life will continue to be intolerable for the majority of mankind. Peace and security will never be assured.”

There was no sign that the developed countries were willing to help bridge the gap between the rich and the poor countries, he said. President Kaunda, son of a Presbyterian minister, said his country was no more than a fish pond for most foreign companies—“the little capital they bring into Zambia is at best bait on a fish hook.” The President, who is in Sweden on a six-day State visit, called on the Church to try to influence governments poth politically and morally to promote justice between nations.

Earlier today, the first Roman Catholic priest ever to address a council assembly said that membership of his Church in the world body was no longer out of the question. Father Roberto Tucci, a Jesuit and editor-in-chief of an Italian Roman Catholic review, told the third day’s plenary session that while psychological and practical obstacles to Roman Catholic membership were formidable, they were no longer insuperable.