Word: wilson
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Most African states were seething at British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's efforts to reach a settlement with Ian Smith's breakaway white regime in Rhodesia. Singapore and Malaysia deplored Britain's planned military withdrawal from points east of Suez. Australia and New Zealand were unhappy about London's hankerings to join Europe's Common Market, a move that would cost them dearly in tariff concessions. Four East African members that are anxious to get rid of their Asian minorities (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) were outraged because Britain was not willing to take them...
...sheer curiosity and panoply. There in London last week were the Daimler sedans, each with a Special Branch man riding shotgun in the front, whisking delegates from their suites in Claridges, Grosvenor House or the Dorchester to the Regency-style Marlborough House. There at the meeting itself was Harold Wilson, impatiently tapping his outsize Tanzanian meerschaum on the mahogany conference table when a speaker droned on. There, too, were Malawi's Hastings Banda, waving his fly whisk imperiously, and Canada's Pierre Elliott Trudeau, impetuously sliding down a banister after one tiresome session...
...Wilson, for example, was subjected to none of the outraged harangues of the 1966 session, during which Zambia's Simon Kapwepwe labeled him a "racialist." The principal speaker on Rhodesia was Tanzania's Julius Nyerere, who complained acidly, to be sure, about Wilson's proposed settlement with Salisbury. But Nyerere went on to declare, to the general amazement of his listeners: "We all love Britain...
Tragic Conflict. Britain's policies were another matter, however. On Rhodesia, Wilson stuck by his proposal that a referendum be held on independence, despite the obvious difficulties in arranging safeguards to protect black voters. A majority of the delegates voted instead for the proposal embodied in the awkward acronym NIBMAR (No Independence Before Majority African Rule). Home Secretary James Callaghan angered nonwhite Commonwealth members by refusing to guarantee a welcome for any and all British passport holders of Asian descent. His refusal was particularly galling to East African nations, which have renewed a harsh campaign against thousands of Asian...
Though there was some truth in the complaint by the Times of London that the conference had "discussed almost everything, but had settled almost nothing," the meeting nonetheless had its value. Differences were aired in open, reasonable discussion, and that, as Wilson said, "is what the Commonwealth is all about." Added the Prime Minister: "I don't know anywhere else where 24 heads of government and four deputies could talk to each other for ten days and then make plans to meet the following year again...