Masters or Partners?

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THERE are various grounds on which it may be argued that the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is the key to Africa. In the Union of South Africa, racial attitudes have hardened and the express political ideal of the dominant party is to increase separation between the races--social, political and economic. This is to run counter to the main trend of opinion in the world and in the long run would seem to most people in the United States and Britain a policy likely to lose Africa--that is, lose any hope of keeping the good will of African States when they eventually become independent. But to the north of the Union lies the Federation, which covers more than 485,000 square miles, larger than the states of Texas, California and New York put together, and has an economic potential to be reckoned with. Here the declared political ideal is not separation of the races but "partnership." Many eyes look from the south towards the Federation, some with cynicism, some with hope. If by any chance the Federation can find a solution to racial problems which can truly be described as "partnership" the Union would surely be affected, and still more so Kenya and Tanganyika. There are divided minds and uneasy consciences in the Union and the success of the Federation's policy would reinforce the consciences.

On one point it is possible to be tolerably certain. If in the course of the next ten years no solution based on a true form of partnership has emerged, then the small white minority who live in Central and East Africa must either cling to power by the naked use of force--and that can hardly be for long--or make the uncomfortable choice between leaving the country of their birth and reconciling themselves to a government in which African interests and attitudes are supreme...