Some Questions for a Friend

On the eve of the coup against Nigerian Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa last week, leaders of 19 of the British Commonwealth's 22 nations* met in Lagos to discuss another troubled country: Rhodesia. Britain had its early misgivings about the two-day conference. It was the first such meeting ever held outside Britain, the first presided over by anyone but the British Prime Minister, the first called on the initiative of a government other than Britain, and the first with only a single-item agenda.

At best, the meeting could win for Prime Minister Harold Wilson grudging endorsement of his policy of economic sanctions against Ian Smith's renegade government. At worst, it could split wide open Britain's multiracial Commonwealth, already strained by Wilson's refusal to use military force. In the end, it was a very much relieved

Wilson who could sigh that "This conference has been a very great success" --if only because he gained a little time.

Meeting in Lagos' gleaming Federal Palace Hotel, the delegates got right down to work under the chairmanship of Sir Abubakar, who had suggested the meeting last month as a way to head off precipitate action by Africa's angry extremists. "We believe the policy we are following," Wilson said, "is right, appropriate, and will be effective." He could point to the fact that British sanctions have already cut Rhodesia's main exports 90% --including sugar, tobacco, copper, chrome, steel and meat. American importers are boycotting Rhodesian asbestos and lithium; Japan banned Rhodesian iron imports starting April 1. Even with strict gasoline rationing (one gallon a week for small cars, two gallons for large cars), the country has only an eight-to twelve-week supply left, and a few patriotic businessmen have opened a quasi-comic drive to switch from horsepower to donkeys.

That was not enough, however, for Sierra Leone's Sir Albert Margai, who claims that outright force is the only way to bring Smith down. "All right," Wilson snapped, leaping to his feet. "Suppose we made you commander in chief of this invasion force. Could you give us a date by which you could end the Smith regime? How would you get British forces into Rhodesia in sizable numbers without a buildup of several months--a buildup that would be obvious and might result in Kariba Dam's being blown up? These are some of the questions, my friend. How would you answer them?" He didn't.

At the meeting's conclusion, Margai quietly joined the other delegates in a communique backing Wilson's boycott policy and suggesting the eventual possibility of force "if this proved necessary to restore law and order."

* Australia sent only observers; Tanzania and Ghana, which broke relations with Britain over the Rhodesian crisis, boycotted the conference.

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