by Smith

FR PAUL ECiLl, 47-year-old Swiss Catholic missionary, was arrested last week by Ian Smith's Rhodesian authorities at the Berejena Mission, southeast of Fort Victoria.
Fr Egli, a nephew of Bishop Haene, of Gwelo, Rhodesia, went out to Rhodesia in 1959, with the Bethlehem Fathers. Fr Joseph Elsener, the VicarGeneral of Gwelo, tried to visit him in Rutenga Prison last week but was refused permission. Fr Egli has since been transferred to prison in Fort Victoria.
No official reason has yet been given for Fr Egli's arrest, although it was reported that the officer who carried out the arrest said that several cases had been prepared against him.
A spokesman for the Bethlehem Fathers in Britain commented: "It is generally assumed that Fr Egli has been arrested for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of freedom fighters and for attending guerrilla meetings."
Sr Aquina Weinrich, OP, writing in the current issue of Blackfriars, highlighted the inoral dilemma posed by the illegal Rhodesian regime's oppression of the majority black population — "a committed Christian must ask himself whether the cause of justice and peace is better served by force of arms or by the continuation of present oppression . . . in this situation neutrality does not exist."