Smith — 'No compromise’

Press, 18 October 1976, Page 8

Smith — ' No compromise’

NZPA-Reuter London The Rhodesian Prime Minister (Mr lan Smith) said in the London “Sunday Express” yesterday that the terms agreed for a handover to black majority rule were not negotiable. “There can be no question of white Rhodesians giving up control of the security forces during the term of an interim government,” Mr Smith said in a signed article. Mr Smith is due to meet black nationalist leaders in Geneva this month for a conference on the future of the country, which broke away from Britain in 1965. One of his key proposals

for the period leading to majority rule within two years is that the defence and police portfolios should remain with white Ministers in a multi-racial interim government. This has been called unacceptable by some black leaders. Mr Smith said the Rhodesian Government had accepted the terms of AngloAmerican proposals put by the United States Secretary of State (Dr Henry Kissinger).

“The Rhodesian Government, having accepted the terms of the agreement, will do everything possible to make it succeed. But the agreement is not negotiable,” Mr Smith said.