Salisbury goes on with plans for governor

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 8

Salisbury goes on with plans for governor

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury 1 Zimbabwe Rhodesia today 1 is poised to return to British, control within a matter of I days. The British Foreign Secre-i tary (Lord Carrington) said 1 yesterday an independence constitution would be enacted within the next few days and he gave the Patri-i otic Front guerrillas until I then to accept his plan for a cease-fire. He said Britain was is-! suing a decree creating the' position of a governor; whose arrival in Salisbury: would bring the rebel colony back under legal British authority.

According to senior diplomats in London, Britain has chosen Sir Winston Churchill’s son-in-law, Lord Soames, a former ambassador to France and present leader of the House of Lords, as governor. A career diplomat, Sir Anthony Duff, will be lieutenant governor, and General John Acland commander of the Commonwealth ceasefire force, say the diplomats. Even before Lord Carring ton’s announcement in London, British and Zimbabwe Rhodesian officials had arranged a dawn rehearsal o the arrival ceremony for th< governor. Under agreements already reached in three months o negotiations involving Brit am, the Salisbury’ Govern | r . A*., -

rewa and the Patriotic Front, the governor would run the country for an interim period until elections are held 11 weeks after a ceasefire. A Government spokesman in Salisbury displayed mild resignation over the British Government’s apparent failure to achieve an agreement :overing all parties. “We must pay tribute to Britain’s incredible patience n the face of over three aonths of Patriotic Front filibustering,” he said. “Although the first prize •ppears to have evaded the ritish Government, most Zimbabwe Rhodesians will ♦%■», the Patriotic

Front will still return in I peace to face the people in a I General Election.” I For the country’s war- ! weary inhabitants, Lord Car-| rington’s action came as no| 1 surprise. It had been sug- ■ igested in Zimbabwe Rhojdesia that Britain had com-! [mitted itself too far and! [achieved too much at the! i London talks to allow the I [Patriotic Front to undermine jits peace initiative now. , Apparently rejecting increased white confidence in (Zimbabwe Rhodesia’s future, the number of whites leaving the country reached its • lowest point for three years ■last month with a net loss iof only 207. But there was an immedi-

ate indication yesterday that even a London agreement involving all parties would ijnot bring complete peace. 1 Unidentified gunmen fired a : shot through the bedroom ■ window of the most senior Patriotic Front official in 1 Salisbury. 1 The gunmen sped off in a 1 car after firing at the subur- • ban home of Cephas Msipa, [-education secretary of Joshua Nkomo’s 'Zimbabwe 1 African National Union wing : of the Patriotic Front. No-! : one was injured. Yesterday, the former Prime Minister, lan Smith, i described Lord Carrington’s ! statement as just the latest : in a series of bluffs between I Britain and the Patriotic i Front.