New Range Boss

SOUTHERN RHODESIA

Southern Rhodesia achieved "responsible self-government" more than 40 years ago as a territorial member of the British Commonwealth. But since then, with the emergence of black-ruled independent states throughout Africa, the definition of responsibility has changed. Under Southern Rhodesia's constitution, only 60,000 of the na tion's 3,600,000 blacks qualify to vote, and the government remains under the control of a white minority numbering 224,000.

Britain refuses to grant Southern Rhodesia full independence until this inequity is remedied, while Southern Rhodesia's "cowboy government" -- so named because its ruling, white-supremacist Rhodesian Front Party consists mostly of ranchers -- threatens to buck rather than submit to the rowels of a black majority. The cowboys say that they will declare independence from Britain unilaterally if they are not granted it this year under the existing constitution. Last week the cowboys kicked out their old range boss, Prime Minister Winston Field, 60, in favor of a tougher, younger man.

Tall & Humorless. In London two months ago, Field had been unable to win from Britain any concessions on the constitutional issue. Outraged, the Rhodesian Front turned to 45-year-old Ian Smith, a rancher from Selukwe who had served as Field's Minister of Finance.

Tall, humorless Ian Douglas Smith is a rough customer. As a Spitfire pilot with the R.A.F. during World War II, he survived a crash that left the right side of his face paralyzed, was later shot down over Italy and fought for five months with Italian partisans behind the German lines. After the war, under former Prime Minister Sir Roy Welensky, Smith served in the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly. But Sir Roy did not believe in complete independence from Britain, and Smith split with him in 1961.

Tear Gas & Truncheons. Smith's first act as Prime Minister last week was to arrest African Leader Joshua Nkomo and three officials of his People's Caretaker Council, whom the government accused of "dragging the country from crisis to crisis." The arrest triggered riots that brought white cops with tear gas, dogs and swinging truncheons into Salisbury's Highfield African Township. Before the week was out, more than 250 Africans had been arrested.

But, if only for tactical reasons, Smith seemed unlikely to declare independence from Britain immediately. His party holds a wafer-thin, five-seat majority in the 65-man Parliament, and he probably will not get parliamentary support for such a move. Moreover, the British now pay preferential prices for Southern Rhodesia's staple crop of tobacco; thus, independence might be costly. Hendrik Verwoerd's government in South Africa sympathizes with Smith's policies, but Verwoerd has no desire to take on Southern Rhodesia's economic and military problems in addition to his own.

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