RHODESIA: ANGLICAN BISHOP OF MASHONALAND SAYS "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" GRANT BY WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES SUPPORTED VIOLENCE IN RHODESIA.

Record ID: 375982

  • Title: RHODESIA: ANGLICAN BISHOP OF MASHONALAND SAYS "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" GRANT BY WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES SUPPORTED VIOLENCE IN RHODESIA.
  • Date: 29th April 1972
  • Summary: 1. SV Bishop Burroughs walking through garden with dog. 0.11 2. CU Sign and house. 0.15 3. CU Bishop interviewed. 1.50 SOUND STARTS: "Would you hazard a guess......" SOUND ENDS: "......very much." INTERVIEWER: Would you hazard a guess on the results of the Peace Commission findings?. BISHOP: That would be folly - as greater men than I have refused to do it. But I would say it could not be a "yes" - it is most unlikely to be a clear "No." I would expect - diplomats being what they are - that it will be wrapped up, but it will be a "non-proven" verdict, which of course throws the ball neatly back into the court of both governments, and tells them to get on with it. And I think they will have to do. INTERVIEWER: During this week, reference was made, was often made, to freedom fighters. Do you approve of freedom fighters, who advocate violence in which - in order to achieve their ends? And where does the World Council of Churches come in on all this? BISHOP: Firstly I have erased from my vocabulary the words "freedom fighters" "terrorist", "Communist" and "fascist:" because they're political coins in a political jungle of snakes and ladders. I believe that the World Council was wrong with regards to Rhodesia - in the grants it made to its programme against Racism - because though I think its motives were perfectly sound, in hoping to help and give comfort to oppressed people, in fact that was not the situation; and they were inevitably supporting violence in our own issue. That I think one has to say. INTERVIEWER: Thank you Bishop very much. Initials VS/21.51 VS/21.58 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th May 1972 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RHODESIA, AFRICA
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Reuters ID: LVA49Y4B321X1RCK72QHBRMWMJWA
  • Story Text: A leading Rhodesian churchman said Thursday (April 27) that the World Council of Churches was wrong - though well-intentioned - in making grants to an anti-Racist programme in Rhodesia.

    Speaking at his home near Salisbury the Rt. Rev. Paul Burrough, Anglican bishop of Mashonaland - the province in which Salisbury is located - said the Council was inevitable supporting violence.

    The Bishop was interviewed on his return from Zambia, where he had addressed the seventh provincial synod of the Central African Province of the Anglican Church.

    Bishop Burrough said he expected the Peace Commission - which sought to find out how Rhodesian people fault about the proposed Independence settlement - would give no clear verdict, and leave it to the two governments to sort the matter out.
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