"There will be no African rule in my lifetime," said Rhodesia's Prime Minister Ian Smith. "The white man is the master of Rhodesia, has built it and in tends to keep it." In the huge African colony staked out by Cecil Rhodes, many white men agree with Smith —and with Rhodes's 19th century goal of "a whole plan of British advance in South and Central Africa." But times have changed — and so has Britain.
Backed by all the 19 Commonwealth governments, Whitehall has repeatedly refused to grant the self-governing col ony full independence until its 224,000 whites agree to a "peaceful transition to majority African rule" by its 3,700,000 blacks.
Unwilling even to consider such heresy, White Supremacist Ian Smith has been marching rowdily toward the point of no return: unilateral declaration of independence (UDI), the likes of which Britain has not faced since 1776. As Rhodesians prepared for the showdown, they got a crackdown instead. Tipped off by Smith's brusque refusal to discuss the situation in London last week, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson sent his Rhodesian colleague a memorandum warning direly that UDI would be "treasonable," an "open act of defiance and rebellion" that would bring swift reprisal by Britain.
Dogs & Hyenas. Actually, as onetime Finance Minister Smith knows well, Rhodesia's whites have precious little to gain from any form of independence.
As a sovereign nation, Rhodesia might lose some $5,500,000 a year that Britain contributes toward balancing its budget. As a maverick state outside the Commonwealth, it would have to find new markets for more than half of its yearly exports, and would forfeit highly preferential Commonwealth tariff rates.
But reason alone is no match for emotionalism, and last month Smith announced that the date for his supremacist independence had finally been set for December. Salisbury cafe wags warbled merrily: 'Tan's Dreaming of a White Christmas." But Ian was not just dreaming.
Ignoring repeated warnings from London, Smith last month called a special referendum of the colony's 90,000 white and 10,000 African voters, to be held this week. Even more ominously, he arranged to "take the opinion" of the other 3,690,000 blacks by calling an indaba, a powwow of their 622 tribal chiefs and headmen—most of them grizzled old men whose primary loyalties are to their government paychecks.