HEATH'S U-TURN
MR EDWARD Heath told the House of Commons last week, `If one comes finally to having to go for full sanctions I do not see how they could possibly be enforced without a blockade.' In his determined advocacy of sanctions against South Afri- ca, Mr Heath takes the opposite view to the one he held as Prime Minister, when he defended Britain's freedom to sell naval arms to South Africa in the face of strong criticism from African and Caribbean members of the Commonwealth. He walked out of one session of the Common- wealth Prime Ministers' Conference in Singapore in January 1971, after President Obote of Uganda had compared the com- promise proposal to set up a study group to consider the problem of the sale of arms to South Africa to Chamberlain's return from Munich, promising peace. Mr Heath told the press: 'I have fully reserved the right of the British Government to take such action as it thinks necessary in defence of British interests.' Mr Heath is perfectly entitled to argue that British interests are now best served by sanctions, as once they were served by not having sanctions (except for ineffective sanctions against the Smith regime). But his new views would be more convincing if he could explain that he has abandoned the old for some good reason.
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