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As a result of the incidents, the U.S. embassy in Kampala last week urged the 1,000 American citizens resident in the country to leave. The Peace Corps, which has 70 volunteers and 48 of their dependents in Uganda, ordered the dependents out and started bringing corpsmen working in the countryside into Kampala for safety. The British had even more reason to be concerned about their nationals. Amin has told his forces to "mark and watch" all Britons, and repeated his charges that a British invasion is imminent. Yet Whitehall fears that a mass evacuation of the 7,000 white Britons in Uganda might be interpreted as a prelude to just that.
Stripped. Almost forgotten in the wild train of events were Uganda's Asians, whose lives at this point are perhaps most vulnerable of all. Amin has said that the 50,000 expelled must be out by Nov. 7 — an impossible deadline — or they will be rounded up and put in detention camps. Even if the original schedule of 16 charter flights a week could be maintained, it would take four months to complete the airlift. As it is, Uganda still has not given landing clearance to the consortium of British airlines that by earlier agreement was to share half of the charters with East African Airways.
Even as the invasion was being mounted last week, the first airlift, carrying 193 passengers, flew into London. Its passengers told of being stripped of their jewelry and searched at gunpoint by Ugandan soldiers on the way to the airport. Another group, which embarked by train for India via Kenya, was also mistreated. The incidents ap parently have made others too fright ened to leave. Two other flights had to be canceled because only a few people showed up to take them.
For many of the Asians, it is likely to be only the beginning of a bleak future — wherever they go. In London, the Monday Club, a right-wing Tory group, declared in a statement that "the immigrants of incompatible races and cultures should never have come here in the first place." In response, Prime Min ister Edward Heath told Britons last week that they could not run away from the nation's obligations. "The reputation of Britain for good faith and humanity should be observed," he said, adding that Britain's obligation to the East African Asians has its roots in "imperial history." It was a welcome note of sanity — and honesty.