The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Thursday, December 1, 1966 — The news of the planned meeting between Mr Smith, Mr Wilson and Sir Humphrey Gibbs was greeted enthusiastically in Bulawayo.

Mr Joel Pincus, Rhodesian Front MP for Bulawayo East, said he had always thought there was a possibility of a face-to-face meeting between the Prime Minister and Mr Wilson, “but I had no information on it.

“The only comment I can make about today’s news is that I hope the meeting — if there is to be one — is going to be fruitful,’’ he added.

Another Bulawayo MP, Mr S H Millar (Bulawayo Central), flew to Salisbury by this morning’s plane without having heard the news, his wife said.

Mr Millar is attending a parliamentary select committee meeting and will return tonight, she said.

The former Federal Finance Minister, Sir Donald McIntyre, commented: “Everybody must be pleased to know that there is a possibility of talks between Mr Wilson and Mr Smith. No one can be certain yet, but we can only hope that they are meeting.”

A former Rhodesian MP, Mrs Maureen Watson, said she hoped the meeting would bring about the long-awaited settlement.

But she said she was not over-hopeful. “The Rhodesian crisis has been just like the Vietnam war. It has gone on and on and on.”

Mr A E Abrahamson, an industrialist and former MP, said: “We haven’t heard anything for a long time, so we can only speculate. Let us hope and pray that it is true.”