In Rhodesia, 50 Africans civilians have been killed in a battle between security forces and black nationalist guerrillas. The incident took place late at night on Monday (14 May) in an unspecified curfew area. An official government communique said a routine patrol came across a guerrilla group addressing a meeting of tribesmen in the curfew area. The security forces opened fire. A Rhodesian army colonel takes up the story.

SYNOPSIS: The killing of the fifty civilians and the wounding of 24 others came as Rhodesia's new interim government was in the midst of a campaign to persuade the country's six-point-eight million black people to rally behind the internal settlement. Reuter's news agency quotes political sources in Salisbury as expressing fears that the incident could have a damaging effect on Bishop Muzorewe and the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, the two principal black members of the Supreme Executive Council. The injured people were taken to the Fort Victoria hospital for treatment. Some were not badly hurt, but others were in very bad shape, as one of the hospital's resident doctors explained.