Nigeria and Rhodesia
Sir: Our Government supplies arms to the Federation of Nigeria to assist them in pre- venting secession by a state which would but live in peace. It penalises Southern Rhodesia, the Rhodesian Federation having been broken up in disregard of a pledge, and it all but wages war on her, as Dean Acheson has so rightly said.
How is she a threat to peace? Apparently, as Lord Conesford pointed out in a debate in the House of Lords, the Salvation Army was once so regarded on the grounds that a skeleton army had threatened to attack it. Fortunately a court of the Queen's Bench ruled otherwise. But could Rhodesia even thus be regarded as a threat to the peace of the world when her neighbours, unlike the skeleton army, are members of the United Nations and thus forsworn not to settle their disputes by force of arms? Perhaps-the Foreign Office has evidence of aggressive intentions by Southern Rhodesia. If so, may it be encouraged to make this known? And is it not required by the Charter of the United Nations that 'any state which is not a member of the United Nations, if it is a party to a dispute under considera- tion by the Security Council, shall be invited to participate, without vote, in the discussion
relating to the dispute'? Has Rhodesia ever been so invited?
Sir, we supply arms to a state which will not even allow the Red Cross to exercise its mission of mercy: we find threats to peace where there are none and bend the Charter of the United Nations to our purposes of illegality. How long must we countenance it all? H. D. Sills Hillstead, Great Shel ford, Cambridge
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