UN and Southern Rhodesia
TliE decision of the UN General Assembly to debate the present situation in Southern Rho- desia and the subsequent (delayed) discussion on that subject will probably have less effect on the real situation than has been either hoped by its initiators or feared by British officials. Whether the resolution tabled by the Afro-Asian group is voted or not, the cold fact remains that the power of the British Government to control events in Salisbury is limited and liable to become more limited still if it is exercised in a way that dis- pleases Sir Edgar Whitehead and Sir Roy Welensky. A unilateral revision of the consti- tution of Southern Rhodesia dictated from London would probably have to be forced upon the European population of that territory, and there is not much doubt as to the political im- possibility of any such step. No British Govern- ment will be willing to get itself into an Algerian situation at the behest of the UN General Assembly. The most that such a vote could do would be to upset the delicate political negotiations at present in progress or stiffen white Rhodesian resistance to the idea of change. The Rhodesian debate, therefore, is not likely to im- prove the lot of the African population of South- em Rhodesia, and its timing is not particu- larly creditable to the political good sense of the General Assembly. Meanwhile, at the other end of Africa, the truce between the OAS and the FLN has shown white settlers that there arc gains fo be won from violence.
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