All's More or Less Well

Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's walkout from the Commonwealth sent a tremor through the Union of South Africa. Many of the English-speaking minority felt a sinking sensation as their last link with Britain was severed. Diamond Magnate Harry Oppenheimer called the news "appalling." Said Johannesburg's Englishlanguage Star: "A time of deep sadness for all South Africans except the Afrikaner extremist whose hostility to all things English was not appeased by the break with monarchy." The Cape Times said: "Now we are a lonely little republic at the foot of turbulent Africa."

World's Polecat. Nonwhites reacted delightedly to what they saw as a crushing Verwoerd defeat. On trains and buses carrying them from their "locations" to jobs in Johannesburg, Africans cried to each other. "Marvelous!" "Wonderful!" In house arrest at Groutville, 35 miles from Durban. Tribal Chieftain Albert Luthuli was "overjoyed" to know that "the Commonwealth stands for emancipation of all people everywhere, and especially in a former British colony." An exultant black told a rally, "South Africa has been publicly declared the polecat of the world!"

Businessmen momentarily panicked at the thought of possible economic consequences. Britain's total investment in

South Africa runs to $2 1/2 billion. London and New York have been chary for the past year of putting vitally needed money into the Union's gold mines. New funds might now dry up entirely. The Commonwealth market takes 70% of South Africa's fruit and half its wine and brandy.

Without Commonwealth preference, the sugar industry might lose a market worth $20 million. Prices tumbled on the Johannesburg stock exchange.

Black Handshake. But. as swiftly as it came, the gloom vanished. - Leaving the Commonwealth did not necessarily mean surrendering Commonwealth advantages.

After all, Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949 without suffering economic loss.

Irish citizens are still able to reside and have jobs in Britain without registering as aliens or needing work permits. The stock exchange steadied and began to climb.

In London, Verwoerd. made it clear that South Africa will remain in the sterling bloc,, and he was eager to work out bilateral agreements to retain his country's Commonwealth trade preferences. He was also ready to continue coordinating defense policies with Britain. His offer of cooperation was cordially received by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who rose in Parliament to say he hoped that, in years to come, "it will be possible for South Africa once more to play her part in the Commonwealth." At week's end English-speaking South Africans were feeling vastly reassured, and panicky Afrikaner Nationalists recovered their courage. During the newsreel at a Johannesburg movie theater, the audience loudly applauded both Verwoerd and Britain's Macmillan, and was relaxed enough to roar with laughter at shots of Verwoerd shaking hands with Nigeria's black Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

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