U.K. still hopes for Rhodesia settlement

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34120, 5 April 1976, Page 17

U.K. still hopes for Rhodesia settlement

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) NAIROBI, April 4.

The British Minister of State (Mr David ennals) said yesterday that he believed there was scope for further negotiations on the Rhodesian . constitutional dispute, provided that the country’s white leaders realised that there was no option but black-majority rule.

Mr Ennals, Minister of State in the Foreign Office, was speaking to reporters during a brief stop-over in Nairobi on his way back to London after talks with Presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Samora Machel of Mozambique. He said he did not expect any new pe-.ee moves as a result of his talks. “My visit was not designed to create a new initiative on Britain’s part with legard to Rhodesia,” he said. Asked to comment on a remark by the Rhodesian Prime Minister (Mr Smith) that he would not expect majority rule in a thousand years, Mr Ennals said: “I think that is a statement we will live to regret.”

The Minister conferred with President Machel before leaving Mozambique yesterday. The meeting had concentrated on aid to Mozambique, he said.

Mr Ennals said; “It is very important for Britain to understand the attitude of Mozambique because it is crucial to the Rhodesia issue.” Aid promised He said he had made it clear to both Presidents that Britain would have no part whatever to play in an armed struggle either for or against white rule in Rhodesia. “We would not be involved in sending troops to Rhodesia, and we would not send equipment or arms,” he said. He said Britain had already announced that £lsm would be made available to Mozambique over a period of years, £sm being provided immediately to buy British goods. “We were not able to discuss any details, but we agreed that an aid mission wmuld be sent out to identify their needs. It was clear

I that the aid we will provide will help a poor country, and that it is not connected with guerrilla activity.” Mr Ennals said President Machel had made it clear that he was totally opposed to external intervention in Rhodesia. E.E.C. view In Luxemburg the nine European Common Market nations have solemnly ap-

pealed to the white minority in Rhodesia to accept a rapid and peaceful transition to majority rule. A special statement issued at the end of a two-day European Economic Community summit conference said that the Nine vigorously supported the objectives set out by the British Government on March 22 and “the efforts which it is making to achieve them.”