Black children barred

Press, 19 January 1979, Page 5

Black children barred

NZPA Salisbury Some 120 black children have attempted unsuccessfully to enrol in three white schools in the first practical bid to end segregation in State schools in Rhodesia. The children, aged from five to 15, were barred by school authorities, who said they were awaiting directives from the Education Ministry. Laws ending race segregation in State schools are not due to be passed formally by the biracial transition Government for another two weeks. Private schools are integrated, but expensive. White schools opened on

Tuesday for the start of the new academic year with enrolment sharply reduced because of the record emigration of whites during the past 12 months from the war-torn country, due to come under black rule next April. In London, the British Prime Minister (Mr James Callaghan) has accepted the advice of his special envoy to Africa, Cledwyn Hughes, and decided against convening an early Camp David-style summit conference on Rhodesia. After visiting Rhodesia and seven other African countries between November 27 and December 14, Mr

Hughes concluded that an all-party conference in the immediate future would be unlikely to reach agreement on Rhodesia’s protracted independence dispute. In Dar-es-Salaam, the Tanzanian Foreign Minister (Mr Benjamin Mkapa) has said there are now 13,000 mercenaries in Rhodesia from Portugal, America, France, West Germany, Israel, Australia, Britain. Canada, and Chile. O.A.U. member States said that nations with mercenaries fighting in Rhodesia should be asked to stop their nationals aiding the Salisbury regime in its war against black guerrillas.