Spectator's Notebook
Pr. Prime Minister did well in Salisbury last 1. week, despite the comedown later over the Royal Commission. It is a great pity that he could not have stayed longer. And if this was impossible for him, surely it was not for Mr. Bottomley. In those few days Mr. Wilson came nearer than anyone has done before in making the British case understood in Rhodesia. As he explained it well in the, House on Monday: there is an incredible amount of delusion among Rho- desians, both black and white; and the British gov- ernment is not going to be swayed by extremists, whether European or African. Britain is not pre- pared to grant independence without guarantees for the advancement of the majority of the popu- lation. Yet if the Smith government insists on a OEM, the Rhodesian economy is bound to be !lug -and there will be no guarantee that the Issue will remain, as it has been until now, one between Britain and Rhodesia alone.
This is a simple enough message: it needed to be repeated again and again. With Mr. Smith, and with who knows how many of the Rho- desian electorate, Mr. Wilson seems almost to have succeeded. It was the diehards of the Smith Cabinet who remained deaf, who, after ,.
Wilson had gone, beat Mr. Smith down from any-attempt at accommodation. Maybe now they will impose their way, but the cracks are there, to be prised at relentlessly before, or even after, a UDI. It does not surprise me that the Royal Commission idea has floundered. It prob- ably does not surprise the Prime Minister. Few of his kites, after all, , have every really suc- eLeeltd in flying. They gain time, and time in the Rhodesian situation is invaluable. The approach of hammering home the facts and s rilVing the extremists of their support still
applies, and will continue to apply even if there is a UDI. If Mr. Wilson needs to go to Salisbury again, he should go. His absence would be no more than the price of having an inadequate Commonwealth Secretary.
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