Word: commonwealth
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...COMMONWEALTH...
...Great Fire of London, and the city rocked last week to the thump of gun salutes and fireworks bursting over the Thames. In the great conference room of Marlborough House, however, it was not only the city of London that appeared to be burning but the entire Commonwealth of Nations...
...occasion was the 16th Commonwealth Prime Ministers' conference, and the primary issue was Rhodesia. Last January, Britain's Harold Wilson had talked the Commonwealth's nine African nations into going along with his policy of economic sanctions as the best way to topple Ian Smith's white rebel regime and prepare the way for handing the government over to Rhodesia's repressed black majority. But the sanctions have not worked, and Wilson last week faced a different kind of rebellion...
Vain Hope? Zambia, whose economy is closely linked to Rhodesia's, threatened to leave the Commonwealth entirely. Five African heads of state found excuses not to attend the conference, and Tanzania's Julius Nyerere refused even to send a delegation in his place. Sierra Leone's Sir Albert Margai, one of the four African Premiers who showed up in person, apparently came to the meeting for the sole purpose of attacking Harold Wilson: in a bitter two-hour tirade, he accused the British leader of everything from duplicity to being "anti-African...
...than half of the chiefs of government are expected to attend. Many of the missing will be protesting Wilson's Rhodesia policy, which so far has failed to cripple the country's economy. The most vocal absentee: Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda, who threatens to leave the Commonwealth entirely unless a full-scale invasion is mounted to bring force against its southern neighbor. Another absentee, Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta, is almost equally adamant. Arriving in London for the conference, Sierra Leone's Sir Albert Margai offered Britain an alternative: either invade or turn the whole affair...