Queen's Pawns

It was another cat-and-mouse week.

In his determination to chase Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith back into his hole, Britain's Harold Wilson came up with another assortment of sanctions.

First he prohibited the import of Rhodesian chrome. Then came a ban on cash-and-carry trade, which supplemented an earlier crackdown on credit deals. Finally, having presumably run out of trade barriers, Wilson decided to test his thesis that most of the Rhodesian civil service is loyal to the Crown, and will prove it if given the chance.

At his behest, Queen Elizabeth suddenly commuted the death sentence of two Rhodesian blacks convicted of set ting houses afire and awaiting execution in a Salisbury prison. The hope was that the voice of the Queen would stir the fire of revolt in Smith's prison authorities, but that hope seemed faint at best. Shrugging off an official warning that executing the two "loyal subjects of the Queen" would be the same thing as murder, Smith made the obvious reply. Wilson, he charged, was trying to "embroil Her Majesty in politics," something that Prime Ministers do at a risk to themselves. No date has yet been set for the execution of the two black pawns, one of whom was sentenced more than two years ago, nor has any date been set for setting the date. Until it is, Wilson can hardly expect the wardens to revolt.

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