Unblessed Are the Peacemakers

Prime Minister Harold Wilson dreamed up the idea of a Commonwealth peacemaking mission while playing croquet at Chequers--and that, it seemed last week, was about as far as the scheme would go. When Communist China heard of the Briton's plan to mediate the war in Viet Nam, Peking declared Wilson was a "nitwit." Then North Viet Nam dismissed the notion as a U.S.-inspired "swindle." Finally, Russian Premier Aleksei Kosygin slammed the door on the Commonwealth mission. "The Soviet government," said he, "has not been authorized by anyone to conduct talks on a settlement in Viet Nam."

Some Commonwealth leaders insisted bravely that Moscow's refusal was not quite as final as it seemed. Then, with no one else to talk peace to except Saigon and Washington, the mission came up with a new approach: why not meet directly with the Viet Cong? The notion certainly appealed to Laborite Wilson's troublesome left wing, but as a diplomatic stroke it was less than inspired. The Viet Cong is not a government, and does not even claim to be. To dignify the Communist guerrillas thus would seriously undercut Washington's insistence that it will only discuss peace with the Viet Cong's masters in Hanoi. At week's end the mission reconsidered its plans, and Wilson announced that their flying safari might be called off entirely unless at least one Communist government relented and agreed to see his team.

Meanwhile, the 14th Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers managed to work its way through an unexciting agenda. Predictably, the only bitter clash of the conference concerned the future of Rhodesia, which is clamoring for independence. Led by Ghana's Nkrumah, the black African Commonwealth nations demanded that Britain head off efforts by the colony's Prime Minister, Ian Smith, to ensure that Rhodesia's constitution will perpetuate white supremacy. The Africans wanted Britain to order one-man, one-vote elections within three months' time. Wilson, while promising to work toward majority rule by Rhodesia's Africans, made it clear nonetheless that the final timetable for Rhodesian independence will be up to him.

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