Todd rejects freedom terms

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 16

Todd rejects freedom terms

IH.ZPA. Staff Crspdt)

LONDON, April 16. Mr Garfield Todd, the New Zealand-born former Premier of Southern Rhodesia, has refused a conditional offer of freedom from the house arrest he has suffered for four years.

A special envoy of the' Rhodesian leader. Mr lan Smith, has told Mr Todd he can have his freedom, provided he does not engage in any political activity, give] interviews, or make public i statements.

“He turned it down flat.” his daughter, Mrs Judith Acton, said in London. “He will not be a walking zom-l bie. What kind of offer is that?”

Mr Todd, who is 67. has! been confined to his Hoko-; nui ranch in Rhodesia since January, 1972, when he was detained for advocating constitutional talks between white and black Rhodesian leaders.

Mr and Mrs Acton attended a dinner for the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) at New Zealand House on

Wednesday night. They did not discuss Mr Todd’s position.

Mr Muldoon wrote to Mr Smith recently, urging him to reconsider the New Zealander’s detention, and to re-j lease him as a gesture of humanitarian good will. Mr Smith replied that Mr Todd was detained on security grounds, and that Rhodesia 1 was in a virtual state of war. I He was allowed to leave I Rhodesia in February, when !he and his wife, Grace, flew

to London for a three week stay with their daughter and her husband. A condition of his temporary freedom was that he made no public statements jon Rhodesian affairs, and gave no press interviews. Mrs Acton said: “After he had returned, an envoy of Mr Smith went to see him and offered his release from house detention on the same terms as those that applied to his London visit. He rejected it outright.” After talks with the British Prime Minister (Mr James Callaghan) in London this week, Mr Muldoon said he was considering what, if any, initiative the New Zealand Government might take to! help bring about a solution to the Rhodesian problem. New Zealand was recognised by the Rhodesians as having been friendly over the years, before Mr Smith’s unilateral declaration of independence, and would willingly do anything it could to bring about a negotiated settlement, he said.

Mr Muldoon, who said it would be a tragedy if the Smith regime were overthrown by force—especially if the force were Russianbacked, as had happened in Angola. He ruled out any prospect of offering himself as a mediator, saying that first Mr Smith had to accept the need to come to some accommodation with black Rhodesian leaders.