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In the Dock. The gradual loosening of economic bonds is paralleled in other areas. Far from taking pride in the Commonwealth as a vestige of empire, an increasing number of Britons wholeheartedly agree with Heath's skeptical attitude. The Prime Minister is determined, above all, to join the European Economic Community in the near future. He made his political reputation as Britain's first negotiator with the Common Market, and he has found the Commonwealth's special economic arrangement more of a hindrance than a help. "The fact is, we've got far more in common with European nations than with most members of the Commonwealth," says Conservative M.P. Peter Hordern. "If the Commonwealth disappeared tomorrow they'd hardly notice."
Many Britons are simply weary of being lectured by fellow Commonwealth members. As Heath put it before leaving for Singapore: "Consultation does not mean there is a right to tell Britain what Britain's policies should be." A Heath aide noted that other members expect a special standard of Britain and then "put .us in the dock" when they are not satisfied. Says Oxford Historian A.J.P. Taylor: "The colored members always seem to be asking something from us, but contributing little. We've been too keen in appeasing and placating them instead of our old friends."
Nonwhite members have their own complaints. There still exists a distinct racial pecking order, they say. The whites patronize all coloreds; Asians are often contemptuous of Africans as unsophisticated; and Africans view the West Indians as a lowly species whose tribal culture has been polluted by whites.
Hub and Spokes. The problem is that Britain and the other white nations of Australia, New Zealand and Canada remain the Commonwealth's center of gravity. With rare exceptions —Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has emerged as one—their leaders have been slow to take into account the sensibilities of the new members. "We are the hub, the others are spokes," declares a British official in a telling remark. Too late, he adds: "We'd like to see it more a Commonwealth of equals, though." British and Australian officials speak of how far the Commonwealth has come since its days as a whites-only fraternity; Kaunda and Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, to name only two African leaders, point out how far it has to go before ridding itself of paternalism and even racism.
The disparity between those two attitudes could, of course, tear the Commonwealth apart. There are those who believe, however, that if only the members can be civil about it, Britain's matchless club will emerge as strong as ever from the effort to reconcile its internal quarrels.