The Crumbling Federation

As long ago as last December, it was obvious that the shaky Central African Federation was not long for this world. Obvious, that is, to everyone but the federation's Prime Minister, big, beefy Sir Roy Welensky. who stoutly insisted that "the continued presence of the white man in Africa" depended on the maintenance of the union of Northern and Southern Rhodesia.

Room Sulkers. Looking his most bulldoggish, and giving a jaunty thumbs-up salute. Welensky stormed into London last week, prophesying ruin and anarchy if his warnings were ignored. Asked if he would use federal troops to prevent the secession of black-dominated Northern Rhodesia, Sir Roy replied, "the only time one would use force would be to maintain law and order. One would not stand by and see things smash. But if you are asking me whether I would use force to keep the two Rhodesias together, the answer is no, because it would not work."

By the time Welensky checked into the Hyde Park Hotel, Nationalist Kenneth Kaunda, top African leader in Northern Rhodesia, had already attended his first meeting with Britain's Deputy Prime Minister R. A. Butler to decide the fu ture course of Central Africa. Of rambunctious Sir Roy, Kaunda sneered, "We are here to rob him of his job. You might make him Lord Broken Reed." With Rab Butler, Kaunda and his fellow nationalist, Harry Nkumbula, argued for two hours Northern Rhodesia's right to secede, and asked why their country should be considered "the Cinderella of Central Africa." When Butler refused to make any promises, the two African leaders walked out and sulked for two days in their hotel rooms.

Power Seekers. This apparently was enough for Rab Butler. He called in Welensky and Southern Rhodesia's Prime Minister Winston Field, a lean, enigmatic farmer who is less interested in the fate of the federation than in seeing to it that Southern Rhodesia's 221,000 whites retain political control of the state's 3,00,000 blacks. Butler announced Britain's decision: no territory would be kept in the federation against its will.

Furious at this "act of betrayal," Welensky stalked angrily from Butler's office and promptly canceled a luncheon engagement with Prime Minister Macmillan, a snub without precedent in British Commonwealth annals. At a news conference, he stormed that "these decisions have been taken by Her Majesty's Government under threat from men who seek power. The people of Central Africa, black and white alike, are being betrayed to these men!" Southern Rhodesia's Field took the news in stride. Now that the federation was virtually dissolved, Field wanted a British guarantee of independence for Southern Rhodesia, and presumably a guarantee of its constitution, which is rigged against the black majority. Until such guarantees are given, said Field, he will attend no more conferences.

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