Bottomley’s Visit To Rhodesia Off

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30959, 15 January 1966, Page 13

Bottomley’s Visit To Rhodesia Off

(N.Z.PA. Reuter—Copyright) SALISBURY, January 14. The visit to Salisbury by the Commonwealth Secretary (Mr Bottomley) was cancelled today. The visit had been cancelled because of the risk of Mr Bottomley being subjected to “insult or worse,” a British High Commission official said in Lusaka.

In London last night, the British Prime Minister (Mr Wilson) had said Mr Bottomley’s trip to Salisbury from Lusaka would be cancelled unless a last-minute message was received from Salisbury. The conditions imposed by the Smith Government for VBottomley’s visit were unacceptable, Mr Wi'son said He had just returned to London from Africa where he had attended the Commonwealth meeting in Lagos on the Rhodesian issue. Mr Bottomley was to have discussed with Sir Humphrey Gibbs the British terms for a return to constitutional rule. The other main purpose

of his visit v'as to have given the Governor a personal report of the two-day Lagos conference. Mr Bottomley would also have discussed wit*- the Governor details of the famine relief scheme for the area. Ignoring Order Meanwhile, two Labour members of Parliament now visiting Rhodesia, have said they plan to ignore an order from the Smith regime to get

out of the country. | Mr David Ennals and Dr. i Jeremy Bray said id Bulo- • wayo they had not been servied with any official Rhodesian I order to leave and intended |to continue their fact-finding tour.

A Rhodesian spokesman in Salisbury said earlier that the two men and another Labour M.P., Mr Christo; ’ .r Rowland, had been warned a leave Rhodesia immediately.

The three were attacked by an angry crowd of white Rhodesians at a Meeting in Salisbury on Wednesday night. Mr Rowland flew to Lusaka last night a few minutes before the order was issued. Mr Wilson has branded the manhandling of the three as unreasoning intolerance and

“a clear breach of normal

standards of law and order.” The “Rhodesia Herald,” in an editorial passed bycensors, said: “The disgusting dust-up, ending in assault on Labour M.P.s in a Salisbury hotel yesterday, could not have projected a worse image of Rhodesia today if it had been stage managed by persons anxious to show that the white Rhodesian man in the street is a loud-mouthed, bone-headed, vicious bully, unfit to be trusted with a glass of beer. let alone with the 1

destiny of a country.” Britain would accelerate its sanctions against Rhodesia in a few days, said Mr Wilson. He said there could be no bridge building with the regime. He said he would also announce in a few days Britain's terms for the settlement of the Rhodesian issue. He said he had not disclosed the nature of the new sanctions in talks with the Zambian President (Mr Kaunda) in Lusaka and the Kenyan President (Mr Kenyatta) in Nairobi. “Indeed we have not finally worked them out,” he said. Mr Wilson said all present sanctions against Rhodesia were biting very deeply. He thought this week’s

Lagos conference on the Rhodesian issue had been “most satisfactory.” In spite of the gloomy forecasts he had heard before he left London, the Commonwealth had emerged from the conference stronger than ever. Asked about the use of force in Rhodesia, Mr Wilson said some felt that force should be used, but British policy had been explained and it was recognised that final responsibility lay with Britain.