S.A. faces red after nuclear warning

Press, 1 September 1977, Page 8

S.A. faces red after nuclear warning

NZPA-Reuter Durban The South African Finance Minister (Mr Owen Horwood) said yesterday that his earlier announcement that South Africa reserved the right to use its nuclear potential for other than peaceful purposes was meant as a protest against outside interference in South African affairs. His hasty explanation came after an immediate reiteration by the Foreign Minister (Mr Pik Botha) that | South Africa stood by its i assurances to four major I

Western nations last week that its nuclear programme was purely peaceful. Earlier, Mr Horwood, Natal provincial leader of the ruling National Party, told the provincial party congress in Durban: “I think it is time we told Mr Carter and a few other people that if we did at any time wish to do other things with our nuclear potential, we will jolly well do so according to our own | decision and our own judgj ment. I Mr Botha’s intervention

and Mr Horwood’s subsequent formal explanation apparently indicate official embarrassment at Mr Horwood’s outburst. It cut across South African protestations that it has no ■plans for a nuclear test. Last week, amid growing international protest that South Africa planned a test, Mr Botha made two flat denials and Mr Carter announced in Washington that he had received an assurance that South Africa would never conduct a test, even for peaceful purposes.