Word: thatchers
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...ended up as friendly as we started," declared Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the close of a special two-day meeting of seven leaders of the 49-nation Commonwealth last week. Actually, relations between Thatcher and her Commonwealth colleagues were strained at the beginning of the session and got steadily worse. In the end Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi accused Britain of "compromising its basic values for economic gain." An even angrier Kenneth Kaunda, the President of Zambia, described Thatcher as a "pathetic figure" who was "worshiping platinum and gold...
...issue, of course, was economic sanctions against South Africa, which 48 Commonwealth governments support but Thatcher has steadfastly opposed. She argues that sanctions would work hardship on millions of blacks in South Africa and neighboring countries while failing to destroy apartheid; she also feared the effect they might have on Britain's estimated $18 billion investment in South Africa and its $3 billion in annual trade with that country...
Present at the divisive Marlborough House summit, in addition to Gandhi and Kaunda, were Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney of Canada, Robert Hawke of Australia, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Sir Lynden Pindling of the Bahamas. On the second day of the meeting, Thatcher dropped her opposition to a proposed European Community ban on South African coal, steel and iron, and said she would accept "voluntary" restrictions on new British investment and the promotion of South African tourism. For the other six leaders present, this was nowhere near enough. Together they endorsed a set of sanctions proposed at a previous Commonwealth...
...pressure for sanctions increased last month, Thatcher twice sent her Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, to Pretoria. His mission: to seek the release from prison of Black Leader Nelson Mandela and the "unbanning" of the African National Congress, the exiled black political movement, in the hope of heading off sanctions. Howe was rebuffed at every turn, both by black leaders angered at Thatcher's refusal to consider sanctions and by the government of State President P.W. Botha for "direct interference" in South Africa's affairs. By mid-July, Kaunda was threatening to leave the Commonwealth if Thatcher remained adamant. Reports...
Next day the group got down to hard work. Thatcher repeated her view that sanctions were "immoral" and impractical. But then, in the interests of Commonwealth solidarity, she offered her modest concessions. Though her proposals did not amount to much, and indeed were not supposed to, they did represent a policy change of sorts. Thatcher balked at any tougher measures, like a ban on air links with South Africa; the London-Johannesburg route is a highly lucrative one for government-owned British Airways. When she turned down Hawke on a boycott of South African farm products, the Australian sputtered...