Southern Rhodesia

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30419, 18 April 1964, Page 12

Southern Rhodesia

Mr Winston Field seemed about the best Prime Minister Southern Rhodesia could hope for while the white settlers were so generally opposed to a more liberal constitution; and the misgivings aroused by his ouster have quickly found justification in the events reported today. Almost alone among his party, he was a moderate man, who might have succeeded in doing what would best serve his country’s constitutional interests at this time—nothing. If his departure means for this anomalous state (neither colony nor dominion) the choice between independence under white domination or independence under a black regime that itself seizes power, the future is dismal. The Africans, 14 times as numerous as the white settlers, have sought a wider franchise, shorn of property and educational qualifications, that would give them office in five years, and they have had some support from the British Government, which retains reserve powers. The governing Rhodesia Front is determined to set back African domination for. a much longer period, if not indefinitely. Its wilder members have talked of a “Boston tea party” in Salisbury.

Now that Mr Field’s cooler influence has gone, some of his former colleagues may be tempted to seize possibly their last opportunity to make a dash for independence. They should hesitate before they do. They could expect no support from the Commonwealth, or even from South Africa, which has advised against precipitate action. The United Nations would have an opportunity to intervene; all the black nationalists of Africa would have a motive to do so. While force probably would not be used against the rebels, as they would technically be, the economic effects of a breakaway might be disastrous. The only hope for Southern Rhodesia is that enough white men will realise that eventually many more black men must have the vote, and that some discernible progress towards eliminating electoral discrimination based on colour must be made. Existing disunity among African factions affords an opportunity for negotiations now. The feeling of white settlers who see the results of African misgovernment in some other places deserves sympathy; but the best that white citizens can do is to help prepare the Africans for the authority that numbers must at some time command. The British Government has almost as much at stake as Southern Rhodesia, because independence now, however engineered, would be interpreted all over the world as a betrayal of Britain’s responsibility to the Africans.