4 AUGUST 1967, Page 2

Rhodesia beyond recall

'Time is running out,' said Mr Ian Smith last weekend. He is wrong. It ran out long ago: when Mr Wilson allowed himself to be eon- inced (no doubt he did not need much con- vincing) that sanctions would topple Rhodesian independence 'in weeks rather than months.' From that moment -On- wards the British government has acted on assumptions about the relative strength of its own and Rhodesia's positions so far removed from reality as to frustrate any chance of realistic negotiations.

By the time the Tiger talks came round it was already obvious that Rhodesia had over- come the sanctions hurdle with surprising ease. Mr Wilson should have been engaged not in browbeating Mr Smith into accepting concessions which were certain to be dis- avowed by his c011eaeues, but rather in devising a few no doubt worthless safe- guards to mask as far as possible the reality of a British surrender. But this he could not do. He could not afford to withdraw from,the only 'crusade' to which he was still committed.

Nor can he now. Admittedly even this crusade is getting blurred at the edges. `NIBMAR' has been parsed into the conditional tense, and the Tiger Constitution, originally presented as the extreme limit of British con- cessions, is to be the starting-point for negotiations—call them what you will—be- tween Mr Smith and the Governor, who was long ago heartily sick of the whole affair. But a surrender to Mr Smith at this stage would only revive the waning interest of the Afro- Asian countries in the Commonwealth and at the United Nations in the Rhodesian affair. Mr Wilson could never persuade the Com- monwealth countries to accept it, and with- out their endorsement even he could hardly dare submit it to the approval of the par- liamentary Labour party.

So the logical course for the British government would be to begin to act as if the Rhodesian situation did not exist. It would not be the first intractable problem to be con- signed to Mr Wilson's capacious memory- hole, after all. The word could go round to interested businessmen that if they wished to resume trading with Rhodesia without making too much of a fuss about it, the Government would have no objection.

At least it would be good training for the European Community. One of the most powerful psychological blocks in the way of British entry into Europe has always been the perverse determination of British civil servants to observe the letter of any commit- ment they enter into. It is time they learnt a more flexible attitude.