§ Mr. Beithasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has received representations from British citizens about the proposal of the Zimbabwe Government to reduce from 10,000 to 1,000 Zimbabwe dollars the amount of money which may be taken out of Zimbabwe by widows emigrating to the United Kingdom; whether this matter was covered by any provisions of the Lancaster house agreement; and whether he has made any representations to the Zimbabwe Government on behalf of persons affected.
§ Mr. RifkindI recognise that these new exchange control restrictions (which include the reduction of the widows' emigration allowance to Z$1,000) will cause difficulties. We welcome the assurances that they are only temporary and that hardship cases will be considered sympathetically. While exchange controls are internal matters for the Zimbabwe Government to regulate, we shall continue to impress upon them the problems which their restrictions cause, particularly in cases involving hardship and the elderly. The controls reflect Zimbabwe's severe shortage of foreign exchange, made even worse by the need to import large amounts of food following three years of drought.
The Lancaster house agreement did not include any provision relating to the restrictions referred to in the question.