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"Vorster is undoubtedly the most skillful politician the National Party has ever produced," a leading British official remarked last week. "But he travels in an ox wagon always one length behind the train of history." Yet with the South African white electorate, Afrikaans-and English-speaking alike, no faster pace is possible. For even the modest efforts Vorster has made at easing his country's racial tensions, the ver-krample (narrow-minded) rightists in his ruling National Party have denounced him as "weak, vacillating, opportunistic." Now Vorster seems even more politically damaged, and his grand design for dialogue and detente with Black Africa seems in jeopardy.