The Pearce Commission report on Rhodesia was published today (Tuesday)- finding that the majority of Rhodesians rejected the latest British-Rhodesian independence settlement proposals.

In 1965, a white regime led by Mr Ian Smith openly defied the British Government by a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Britain has never recognised the Smith Government, but economic sanctions failed to bring the white regime to heel and, last November, British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home, flew to Salisbury to seek terms for a constitutional settlement with Ian Smith. They worked out proposals under which - in exchange for legal recognition of the white Rhodesian Government, Rhodesia's Africans (5,000,000 as opposed to 234,000 whites) would be guaranteed a slow progress towards majority rule, without any set time scale. Under the agreement, the settlement had to be accepted by Rhodesians as a whole - and so the Commission, under British Judge Lord Pearce, was sent to Rhodesia to carry out an independent inquiry. They spent two months there (January and February), and the results of their findings have now been published. Today, the British Government accepted the findings - and announced that the existing economic sanctions would remain until further moves could be found to solve the problem.

Speaking in London after the announcement, Foreign Secretary Douglas Home told a BBC reporter:
SYNOPSIS: Speaking in London on Monday, British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas Home spoke of the Pearce Commission's findings against the settlement in Rhodesia: