Who's a Liberal?

CENTRAL AFRICA Who's a Liberal

In a land named for Britain's empire-building Cecil Rhodes, New Zealand-born Garfield Todd, 49, has enraged many a white settler by constantly echoing Rhodes's 19th century creed--"equal rights for civilized men." As Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, one of the three British territories united in 1953 to form the Central African Federation (the others: Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland). Todd, a onetime missionary of the Churches of Christ (Disciples), is a zealous advocate of the racial "partnership" policies of the Federation's Prime Minister, Sir Roy Welensky. Shying from the native-hating apartheid of neighboring South Africa, trying to avoid the Mau Mau race terror of Kenya to the north, the Federation's moderate leaders have sought some means to advance gradually the rights of the 7,000,000 blacks without upsetting the rule of the 250,000 whites.

Last summer Garfield Todd won grudging approval from his United Rhodesia Party for a compromise first step toward partnership: a grant of voting rights to a modest 6,000 Africans who had the educational level of a high-school sophomore or a monthly income of at least $56. Ignoring the outraged protests of the opposition Dominion Party against partnership, Todd flew to a South African vacation recently so confident of the situation "that I did not bother to read a single Rhodesian newspaper while I was away."

Last week Todd found that his confidence had been misplaced. Returning from his vacation, he had been met at the airport with jolting news:' his four-man Cabinet was resigning in protest against Todd's liberal racial policies. Furthermore, they demanded that Todd himself quit. Todd appealed to the party leadership, only to find 13 of the 24 legislators lined up against him. Stubbornly, Todd refused to resign either as party leader or Prime Minister until a full congress of the party (now merged with Welensky's group as the United Federal Party) meets next month.

"I am not a liberal," Todd insisted, thereby issuing a disclaimer necessary for any politician who hopes for majority support from Southern Rhodesia's white voters. He added defiantly: "The fact is that I believe in the welfare of all people of all races and will riot pander to any one section to get votes. I have been deserted by my friends but I must carry on."

Welensky, anxious to heal the party split before he faces a general election next fall, sat out last week's crisis in silence. In order not to jeopardize Todd's position among the whites, African leaders also remained publicly aloof. But privately they were glum. Said George Nyandoro, secretary of Southern Rhodesia's African National Congress: "It would be a major tragedy for peaceful racial coexistence if Todd went. Without Todd, the Africans can forget further advancement unless they bring it about themselves. Nothing can hasten the breakup of the Federation quicker than Todd's exit."

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