Britain and Rhodesia after Pearce

by TIM SHEEHY and ALEX COLLINICOS "NEITHER the British Government nor that of Rhodesia has any right to decree that no further attempt be made to solve the problem on the basis of justice. If there is no justice in the Proposals, then let those responsible for the omission start again and see that it is put there. Without justice for all, there can be no real settlement and consequently no permanent peace." Bishop Donal Lamont of Urntali to the Pearce Commission Contd. 4964, page 68.
THE AFRICAN people of Rhodesia, endorsing this sentiment, have spontaneously answered the call of the African National Council for a "Big no" and overwhelmingly rejected the settlement proposals. They have staked their trust in the will of the British Government to create the conditions in which a democratic and non-racial society could exist in Rhodesia.
That Britain should in these circumstances remain responsible for Rhodesia is the wish of the Africans and the policy of the British Government as reaffirmed by Sir Alec Douglas-Home in his statement to the House of Commons. However, he hinted that in any further negotiations with the regime, the Fifth Principle, requiring that any settlement be acceptable to the people of Rhod esia as a 'whole, would be modified or abandoned. This would remove the only real guarantee that any proposed settlement would accord with the African's interest in, and demand for, justice.
Moreover, negotiations purely between the British Government and the Smith regime seem certain to wreck themselves again on the rock of African opposition. Future negotiations would only be constructive if they took the form of a constitutional conference at which the ANC was fully represented.
Obviously, to a great degree everything depends on how matters develop in Rhodesia itself. Bishop Muzorewa, the president of the ANC, has called for a national convention representing all races, all political parties, the churches and the trade unions, as a first step to a constitutional conference to settle the country's future. Mr. Smith's strongly negative response to this generous and statesmanlike initiative shows how little the British Government can hope from further negotiations at present.
In these circumstances, what power has Britain to influence events in Rhodesia? The most powerful weapon at her disposal, apart from the use of troops, which is improbable to say the least, is that of sanctions.
Despite their piecemeal appli
cation and frequent evasion, sanctions have created a situation in which the Rhodesian economy is in desperate need of foreign exchange to keep the country's crumbling infrastructure going and to finance industrial growth. Continued sanctions would deny Rhodesia this foreign exchange and present the Rhodesians with a prospect of deepening stagnation. It was for this reason that Smith was prepared to go to the negotiating table at all.
The Pearce report clearly demonstrates that Africans are prepared to accept the sufferings caused by sanctions as the price for continued British responsibility for Rhodesia. If sanctions were intensified, this might have a decisive effect on the balance of power in Rhodesia, given the state of their economy. The key to a policy of intensified sanctions would be a resolve on the part of the British Government to place pressure on the principal sanctions-breakers, who are her allies and trading partners like France, West Germany, the United States, Japan, South Africa and Portugal.
The United States Administration recently announced its support for the repeal o( the Byrd Amendment, which authorises the trade in chrome and other strategic materials from Rhodesia in defiance of the United Nations. This took place immediately after the visit of a British Envoy to Washington with a copy of the Pearce report and is a clear example of the results bilateral pressures can have.
Catholics in Britain should commit themselves to supporting the Africans in their struggle for self-determination. We must accept their rejection of the settlement terms as a demand that apartheid and injustice end in Rhodesia. The government at present finds itself in some difficulty and will be under pressure to abandon the Five Principles and drop sanctions. We must support its commitment to a nonracial society by campaigning for the maintenance of sanctions.