The following piece is a collection of excerpts from an article in the Financial Times -- The government is approaching a decision on the highly controversial issue of whether it should resume supplying arms to South Africa, which have been banned for the last three years in accordance with a United Nations security Council resolution. Pretoria's request for arms is understood to have been under active consideration in Whitehall for some time, but the cabinet was plainly reluctant to give an immediate reply - particularly when it was seeking South Africa's cooperation to bring pressure on Mr Ian Smith to settle the Rhodesian crisis our emphasis). -- Mr Thompson, the commonwealth secretary, who is on his way to Salisbury, had lunch in Pretoria with Dr Hilgard Muller, South Africa's foreign minister. Mr Thompson will arrive in Salisbury on Wednesday. He will probably have talks with Me Smith, although at bhe moment: White- Hall has little hope of them bearing fruit. : * DSRS, € _ British ministers are sharply divided about: the response to South Africa's interest in purchasing British military equipment, believed to be primarily warships and aircraft -- possibly the naval "Buccaneer",
It is believed that a few weeks ago Mr James Callaghan, the Chancellor for the the Exchequer, and Mr George Brown, the Foreign Secretary, were enclined to favour a:modification of the arms embargo. Their argument is reported to have been that the equipment South Africa wanted was not the sort that it could use inst its own Black African population, or against Africans in Rhodesia or elsewhere. (our emphasis) Meanwhile aSouth African arms order would help Britain's exports and its difficult balance of payments position, as well as encouraging South African cooperation in . the search for a settlement with Mr Smith. But it is believed that opposition to the -Government is growing. A powerful group of ministers believes that a modification of the arms embargo would not only enrage many Labour MPs who are vigorously opposed to South Africa's apartheid system (the Labour party is pledged to oppose apartheid), but would antagonise the African and Asian ~ states. The issue of modifying the embargo is believed to have been discussed when Dr Muller had talks with Mr Brown and the Prime Minister in London last month. Since then South Africa has been increasing its pressure. Recently Mr Piefer Botha, the South African defence minister accused Britain of failing to keep her military commitments to South Africa. He alse hinted that future use ofthe Simonstown naval base = provided for when the Royal Navy withdrew earlier this year - might be denied to Britain as a result. Because Britain was not adhering to her military commitments, said Mr Botha, it was essential that South Africa's planning should allow for equipment from other sources. Last April the French government agreed to supply South Africa with three submarines at a cost of £12 million, Since then it is believed that South African arms buyers, who since 1964 had been by-passing Britain on their European visits, have had discussions in London. ~