Consideration in U.N.

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32775, 27 November 1971, Page 17

Consideration in U.N.

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, Nov. 26.

United Nations members were today considering detailed proposals put forward by Britain for a Rhodesian settlement before they decide on further action.

Britain presented the details to the Security Council at an emergency session yesterday and debate was expected to go on fo- several consecutive days. However, it was abruptly interrupted with no date set for resumption.

Informed sources said this was because of the complexity of the proposals and the need for a careful examination by the African group of all their implications. A further factor that appeared to have reduced the earlier sense of urgency over the Rhodesian question was the emphasis by the British Ambassador (Sir Colin Crowe) that the position was unchanged by the proposals and that these represented “the first step only.” “Finality will not be reached until the people of Rhodesia as a whole have had a full and free opportunity to demonstrate whether the proposals are acceptable to them,” Sir Colin Crowe told the 15-nation council. Sir Colin Crowe said that, in the meantime, sanctions against Rhodesia would continue.

The council president, the Polish Ambassador (Mr Eugeniusz Kulaga) was consulting privately with members today on a proposal in the council yesterday by the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Jacob Malik) • that Mr Joshua Nkomo and the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, detained leaders of two proscribed Rhodesian political parties, should be invited to New York to express the “genuine position” of the Rhodesian African majority on the settlement terms.

Sir Colin Crowe said that he would have to consult London on the proposal, which was backed by Mr Abdulrahim Abby Farah of Somalia, one of the three African members of the coun-

cil and its principal African strategist.

The British anti-apartheid campaigner. Mr Peter Hain, described the Rhodesian settlement as “a sordid sell-out to racialism by the British Government.” The Press Association reported that 21-year-old Mr Hain, chairman of the British Young Liberals Movement, said that Sir Alec DouglasHome’s statement was a disingenuous attempt to whitewash the sell-out. An African nationalist organisation outlawed in Rhodesia declared that the British-Rhodesian agreement brought Southern Africa “to the brink of the inevitable racial bloodbath.” The statement came from the Zimbabwe African Peoples’ Union (Z.A.P.U.), one of three Rhodesian exile groups based in Zambia that are pledged to bring Africans to power by armed struggle in Zimbabwe, their name for Rhodesia.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home himself said that he believed that if Rhodesians rejected the new constitutional proposals they would go the ’fray of South Africa. It was a view fairly widely held in i iformed circles, particularly Conservative circles.