Word: rhodesia
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...RHODESIA...
...outsider, the 250,000 whites of Rhodesia would seem to have little need to declare independence from Britain. They seem happy enough as they are. The climate is marvelous, the soil fertile, the servants plentiful and the commerce thriving-thanks largely to Commonwealth tariff protection for their goods. Moreover, since Britain has allowed them a free hand in governing themselves since 1923, Rhodesians have no trouble whatsoever in keeping firm control over the colony's 4,000,000 blacks, only 60,000 of whom are even eligible to vote...
...this is not enough. With independent black nations swarming into the U.N. and the Commonwealth, and the possibility of racial unrest spreading southward across the Zambezi, Rhodesia's whites have become increasingly militant. They are concerned that some time or other, Britain will make them live up to their colonial constitution-which, in theory at least, guarantees eventual African majority rule. Their new militancy is personified by Prime Minister Ian Smith, who came to power 18 months ago on a platform of "no African rule in my lifetime." Ever since, he has claimed that to protect this principle Rhodesia...
...Last week-barring an outright threat of war from Prime Minister Harold Wilson-a declaration of independence seemed right around the corner. Following a week of talks with Wilson in London, Smith held a 95-minute press conference at which he declared that Wilson refused to "negotiate" independence on Rhodesia's terms, and therefore "we have to face up to the alternative, which is U.D.I." What Wilson wanted from Smith was a specific, concrete timetable toward total African enfranchisement. What he got was a promise that a sovereign Rhodesia would grant blacks their rights some time within...
That, in turn, was not enough for Wilson. He warned Smith of "unmentionable and highly dangerous consequences" if Rhodesia seceded. Smith was evidently prepared to call his bluff. He was banking heavily on the probability that although some voices in Britain were calling for British troops, a vast segment of British public opinion would protest the use of tommies to put down an Anglo-Saxon insurrection (Britain has not gone in for that sort of thing since 1776). Instead, what seemed to lie ahead was economic reprisals: the freezing of Rhodesia's sterling deposits, ejection from the Commonwealth...