If Britain’s new government inherited a major crisis in Rhodesia, they’ve since done everything they could to make it worse. Just before the British election Mr. Ian Smith, the Prime Minister, went home to Salisbury believing he’d got Sir Alec Home’s agreement to the referendum he proposed, to sound out African opinion on the independence of Rhodesia under its present white government. Within three days of Mr. Wilson’s team taking over, he was disillusioned. Both Mr. Arthur Bottomley, the Labor Commonwealth Relations Secretary, and Sir Alec’s shadow cabinet repudiated the agreement, and Mr. Bottomley went out of his way to insult Mr. Smith by refusing even to stop off for discussions at Salisbury on his way to celebrate the independence of Zambia, former Northern Rhodesia, and former partner with Mr. Smith’s Rhodesia in the defunct Central African Federation.
Elspeth Huxley
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