Blundering into Danger

»*BOOKS ARTS: MANNERS< Blundering into Danger ELSPETH HUXLEY “Policy,” Professor Marshall writes, ‘is out on a limb.” Just how far out, how rotten the limb and how it got there, he demonstrates in 45 concise and irrefutable pages. This is the sad, sad story of how the State Department, through ignorance and subservience to what he calls “the whims of necessitous neophyte nations,” has blundered into a position on Rhodesia that is not only false, unjust, and untenable, but outright dangerous. For Rhodesia has been declared by the Security Council to be a Threat to World Peace. Under the UN Charter, threats to world peace must be dispelled: hence mandatory sanctions against Rhodesian trade that, inter alia, are obliging the U.S. to buy chrome from Communist Russia instead of from anti-Communist Rhodesia. If sanctions fail—and no one any longer even pretends that they will not fail—the member states are, under the Charter, required to use force. So if, Professor Marshall warns, we keep to our present course, we shall be faced with a legal and logical obliga- tion to declare war on Mr. Ian Smith and his world-peace- -threatening gov- ernment. In Nigeria, ‘the bloody ee and collapse of law and order intensify as Russia intervenes. A threat to world peace? Certainly not. The Egyptian buildup of Russian arms to launch all-out war on Israel acceler- ates. A threat to world peace? Per- ish the thought. Somalia’s forces, Russian-armed, have invaded Kenya, _ while Ethiopians, U.S.-aided, prepare for a showdown with Somalia in the Ogaden. A threat to world peace? Far from it. In Congo and Sudan, civil war savagely sputters on . no need to continue. But in Salis- bury, Rhodesia, streets, full car-parks, flowering trees and busy supermarkets; its pram- . pushing housewives, racially inte- grated hotels, university and parlia- ment; its Saturday football, Sunday picnics and Monday stream-to-work;: amid these scenes of mayhem preside Mr. Smith and his fellow bandits, de- fying world peace by maintaining law and order in this lawless and Crisis Over Rhodesia, by Charles Burton Marshall. Johns Hopkins, $1.45 with its well-kept. disorderly continent, evading sanc- tions that would lead to the unem- ployment, misery and ultimate starv- ation of his four million African citi- zens. = This is the applecart the United States may be called upon to topple and destroy—that, or repudiate its obligations under the UN Charter. American bombs smashing Salis- bury’s business centers, blocks of flats and railroads and pulping its citizens, mainly Africans, who have breathed no threat to anyone, massed behind no _ frontiers, bought no Russian arms, and desired nothing but to live in peace with their neigh-_ bors. Such is Professor Marshall’s warning; and his booklet, which should be compulsory reading for every congressman, State Depart- ment official, even remotely connected with poli- cy-making, traces how this crazy, tragic situation has come about. B RIEFLY, it has come about through taking at its face value everything Mr. Harold Wilson and Lord Cara- don have said. Mr. Wilson has con-. stantly alleged that Mr. Smith’s gov- ernment has rebelled against the British Crown. How? By making his Unilateral Declaration of Independ- ence in 1965? But—and this is all too little understood—in doing so Mr. Smith overthrew no_ constitution, staged no coup, hauled down no flag editor and everyone and breathed no word of defiance to a Crown he continued to acknow- ledge. Mr. Smith and his government were legally elected under a constitu- tion agreed upon in

by the British and Rhodesian governments. They simpy went on governing the country as before with their legally elected parliament and set of laws. _A constitution that had been per- fectly legal and acceptable in

EH

About the Author

Elspeth Huxley

»*BOOKS ARTS: MANNERS< Blundering into Danger ELSPETH HUXLEY “Policy,” Professor Marshall writes, ‘is out on a limb.” Just how far out, how rotten the limb and how it got there, he demonstrates in 45 concise and irrefutable pages. This is the sad, sad story of how the State Department, through ignorance and subservience to what he calls “the whims of necessitous neophyte nations,” has blundered into a position on Rhodesia that is not only false, unjust, and untenable, but outright dangerous. For Rhodesia has been declared by the Security Council to be a Threat to World Peace. Under the UN Charter, threats to world peace must be dispelled: hence mandatory sanctions against Rhodesian trade that, inter alia, are obliging the U.S. to buy chrome from Communist Russia instead of from anti-Communist Rhodesia. If sanctions fail—and no one any longer even pretends that they will not fail—the member states are, under the Charter, required to use force. So if, Professor Marshall warns, we keep to our present course, we shall be faced with a legal and logical obliga- tion to declare war on Mr. Ian Smith and his world-peace- -threatening gov- ernment. In Nigeria, ‘the bloody ee and collapse of law and order intensify as Russia intervenes. A threat to world peace? Certainly not. The Egyptian buildup of Russian arms to launch all-out war on Israel acceler- ates. A threat to world peace? Per- ish the thought. Somalia’s forces, Russian-armed, have invaded Kenya, _ while Ethiopians, U.S.-aided, prepare for a showdown with Somalia in the Ogaden. A threat to world peace? Far from it. In Congo and Sudan, civil war savagely sputters on . no need to continue. But in Salis- bury, Rhodesia, streets, full car-parks, flowering trees and busy supermarkets; its pram- . pushing housewives, racially inte- grated hotels, university and parlia- ment; its Saturday football, Sunday picnics and Monday stream-to-work;: amid these scenes of mayhem preside Mr. Smith and his fellow bandits, de- fying world peace by maintaining law and order in this lawless and Crisis Over Rhodesia, by Charles Burton Marshall. Johns Hopkins, $1.45 with its well-kept. disorderly continent, evading sanc- tions that would lead to the unem- ployment, misery and ultimate starv- ation of his four million African citi- zens. = This is the applecart the United States may be called upon to topple and destroy—that, or repudiate its obligations under the UN Charter. American bombs smashing Salis- bury’s business centers, blocks of flats and railroads and pulping its citizens, mainly Africans, who have breathed no threat to anyone, massed behind no _ frontiers, bought no Russian arms, and desired nothing but to live in peace with their neigh-_ bors. Such is Professor Marshall’s warning; and his booklet, which should be compulsory reading for every congressman, State Depart- ment official, even remotely connected with poli- cy-making, traces how this crazy, tragic situation has come about. B RIEFLY, it has come about through taking at its face value everything Mr. Harold Wilson and Lord Cara- don have said. Mr. Wilson has con-. stantly alleged that Mr. Smith’s gov- ernment has rebelled against the British Crown. How? By making his Unilateral Declaration of Independ- ence in 1965? But—and this is all too little understood—in doing so Mr. Smith overthrew no_ constitution, staged no coup, hauled down no flag editor and everyone and breathed no word of defiance to a Crown he continued to acknow- ledge. Mr. Smith and his government were legally elected under a constitu- tion agreed upon in

by the British and Rhodesian governments. They simpy went on governing the country as before with their legally elected parliament and set of laws. _A constitution that had been per- fectly legal and acceptable in