White Man's Bastion

As the black "winds of change" sweep across Africa, many white men have bent to them as gracefully as possible. The exceptions have been the Afrikaners of South Africa, the Portuguese in their colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and the white supremacists of the Central African Federation. By an accident of geography, the territories they control span the southern tip of the continent.

Noting this happenstance, geopoliticians in all three areas have long talked of forming a three-way pact to establish a white man's bastion against the black tide. Last week the idea was taking on real substance. Northern Rhodesia's burly, apartheid-minded John Gaunt rose in the Parliament of the Central African Federation to call for a defense pact between the Federation, Angola and South Africa, "and the sooner the better for all of us." Approving recent talks between Federation Defense Minister John M. Caldicott and Angola's Governor General Venancio Augusto Deslandes, Gaunt warned: "It's only a matter of time before some of the other governments around us decide to liberate their broth ers in Northern Rhodesia and pour guns, agitators and money across our long and lonely borders."

Already, a tangible defense link between the Rhodesians and the Republic of South Africa had been forged: last week the Royal Rhodesian Air Force announced that it would take part in joint training exercises with the South African air force.

This week South Africa's Defense Minister Jacobus Johannes Fouche arrives in Lisbon to discuss problems of mutual defense, since Portugal's colony of Mozambique has a common border with South Africa. The obvious common ground: both Portugal's Salazar and South Africa's Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd believe the black man has his place--and should be kept in it.

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