Spectator's Notebook
Ifs excellent news that the Anglo-Rhodesian talks have begun and seem all set to continue for some time, on the apparently 'neutral' ground of the old India Office. It's still true that the talks are more likely to founder than succeed, but there are real grounds for hope.
For one thing, both sides genuinely want a solution. For Britain, it is clear that if talks had not started there was every likelihood of the situation getting completely out of hand, with the Government faced with a choice between the use of force, which is politically repugnant, or the extension of sanctions to South Africa, which would have been economically ruinous. If the brakes had not been put on, one or other of these escalations to disaster, seemed inevitable. On the Rhodesian side, it had become plain that the effect of sanctions would, if nothing was done, eventually become insupportable. The white Rhodesians have given the world notice that they are prepared to die in the last ditch; but like everyone else they would rather stay alive.
The other hopeful factor is the discrediting of the extremists on both sides. ,Mr Smith has un- doubtedly been able to strengthen his hold over his own people—and therefore his ability to make concessions—by showing how wrong the Rhodesia Front hard-liners have been to pooh- pooh sanctions. And Mr Wilson can safely dis- regard racist black African opinion now that it has been so discredited by events in Ghana (not to mention the instability in other black African states). Obviously, the purpose of the talks must be to resume the discussions where they left off on November 11, But there is one further objec- tive the British government must have in view. Whatever agreement may be reached, a tense and potentially explosive situation is bound to remain in Rhodesia until such time as majority rule eventually comes. We must make it clear to all concerned that Britain's special responsibility for Rhodesia does not continue until that time, but ends on the day on which legal independence is granted. From then on Rhodesia will continue to be a problem. But it must be a world problem. We've enough of our own as it is.
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