Reasoning Separately

As expected, the British government's Pearce Commission (TIME, May 22) formally reported last week that Rhodesia's 5 million blacks oppose the terms of a proposed settlement between Britain and its breakaway colony--in fact they reject it by more than 36 to 1.

What happens next? There will certainly be further negotiations, but not for a while. Prime Minister Ian Smith is in trouble with the right wing of his Rhodesian Front Party for having agreed to the settlement in the first place. His renunciations of the Pearce Commission--last week he accused it of "naivete and ineptness"--are intend ed to help him recoup his position with Rhodesia's 250,000 whites.

The black majority was greatly pleased by the commission's findings. Methodist Bishop Abel Muzorewa, leader of the newly formed African National Council, called the report a "God-given chance" for Rhodesia's blacks and whites "to reason together and try to solve their problems." Smith was not having any of that kind of reasoning. "They are a bunch of unscrupulous politicians," he said of the council leaders, "who have hoodwinked the poor African." In the absence of a settlement, the British government will maintain its diplomatic and economic boycott of Rhodesia. "The status quo," said Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home resignedly, "will remain."

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