The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1963. African Federation In Ruins

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30100, 6 April 1963, Page 10

The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1963. African Federation In Ruins

After nine yean* reluctant life the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is swiftly collapsing into an extraordinary morass of uncertainties. Instead of a cohesive, multi-racial organism at the heart of Britain’s former African empire, there will shortly be three divided territories, two of them dominated by “ black ” African nationalism and the third tending to bigotry of the kind made infamous in the Republic of South Africa. The two former territories—Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia—are apparently assured of total independence; but Southern Rhodesia’s equivocal constitutional status may not be altered for some time, in spite of the confident protestations of its Prime Minister (Mr Winston Field). The inter-play of “black” African sentiment and the “ white supremacy ” of Mr Field’s supporters clouds the prospect of co-operation, economically or otherwise, within the dying federation’s boundaries. Neither Northern nor Southern Rhodesia will be as prosperous alone as they are together; yet northern antipathy to the racism of th» south forbids even the economic links that optimists (including, perhaps, Mr Butler, the United Kingdom Minister for Central African Affairs) had hoped to salvage from the federation. However, the most intractable problem of all may concern constitutional arrangements to permit Southern Rhodesia’s full independence. It is at least a convention that the colony’s present constitution cannot be changed by the United Kingdom Parliament without Southern Rhodesia’s concurrence; yet this constitution, preserving the right of a European minority to govern a predominantly African country, is regarded by the African share in Southern Rhodesia’s government, the chances of promoting economic growth and security in the entire region will be gravely prejudiced. Moreover, short of arranging for better African representation, the British Government may be reluctant to yield to Mr Field’s demand for early autonomy. The dismantling of the

Central African Federation began last November at the Nyasaland constitutional conference, when Dr. Banda and his colleagues won the right to secede. The process was speeded on March 25 by the ultimatum (also on the secession issue) of the Northern Rhodesian delegation to Mr Butler’s London conference. Thus the manful efforts of the Federal Prime Minister (Sir Roy Welensky) to preserve federal associations at least between the two Rhodesias were abruptly defeated. There remain vast problems of dismemberment, notably the apportioning of the Federal debt, the disbanding of the Federal Civil Service, and decisions about such Federal enterprises as Central African Airways and the Kariba dam. Probably not even in the Congo have there been such strikingly tragic losses as the result of inter-racial bitterness. Mr Field is still correct in his assertion (made at the opening of the new Parliament in Salisbury on February 13) that “the “ question of Southern “ Rhodesian secession will “not arise—we shall have “been seceded from”; but it is equally correct that, more than anything else, Southern Rhodesian conservatism has destroyed the federation. Because in both the northern territories non-African minorities were insufficiently numerous to assert their power, the real test of racial partnership has occurred in Southern Rhodesia. Since Mr Field’s electoral triumph, his Government, by its introduction of severely repressive laws, has justified the fears of “black” Africans and invited speculation about its future relationships with the South African Republic. By contrast, Mr Kaunda’s Northern Rhodesians have strong affinities with neighbouring Katanga; and Dr. Banda’s Nyasaland is militantly “ black ”. Thus the collapse of the Central African Federation must aggravate racial divisions, against which the moderating influence of the British “ presence ” will already have been lost, and may imperil the orderly development of all Africa.