The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Saturday, May 18, 1968 — The Rhodesian government claimed yesterday that members of the banned Zapu and Zanu were receiving national assistance in Britain while engaged in terrorist planning. A spokesman was commenting on a London Daily Express report that Rhodesian Africans were getting British passports to travel abroad to train as guerillas.

The spokesman said in a statement that the Rhodesian Government had been aware for some time that Rhodesian Africans had been granted British passports in Dar es Salaam and Lusaka.

“It is a fact that dozens of potential terrorists have gone to Zambia, and have subsequently been issued with British passports,” he said.

Commenting on Mr Wilson’s remark that the Rhodesian authorities issued these men with Rhodesian passports, the spokesman said: “We only issue Rhodesian passports to bona fide students and others who produce reasonably satisfactory evidence of acceptance by educational and other institutions.”

The statement went on: “We know that a number of adherents of the banned Zapu and Zanu have been admitted to Britain on British passports issued in Lusaka and Dar es Salaam without identification papers and these people have been and are engaged in terrorist planning.

“In terms of the British requirements concerning employment and residence in the United Kingdom, these people come under the category of not gainfully employed and should be removed from the country.

“Some of them have been in the UK for more than two years and have been and are still receiving national assistance.”