"White Uhuru"

Black African leaders used to call Sir Roy Welensky a white elephant and cheered when the Central African Federation, of which he was Prime Minister, broke up last New Year's Eve. Now some wish the elephant were back.

When the federation collapsed, it split into three parts. Nyasaland has gained independence under a black government, and Northern Rhodesia will have the same status next month. Southern Rhodesia, still a British self-governing colony, also wants independence, but Britain refuses to grant it, except under a new constitution that will give the now suppressed black majority a larger share in the government. Southern Rhodesia's white-supremacist Prime Minister Ian Smith rejects the idea and threatens to declare independence from Britain unilaterally, a move his critics refer to as "white uhuru."

On to Portugal. Although snubbed by the Commonwealth Conference in London in July, Smith decided to behave himself until further negotiations can be tried, but there is growing evidence that he may not go on behaving himself much longer.

The Salisbury Daily News, owned by British Newspaper Tycoon Lord Thomson of Fleet, was banned last week for supporting African aspirations, despite a protest demonstration by 100 white and non-white students before the Parliament building. The Salisbury suburb of Highfield, where rival African parties have been feuding violently for months, was put in a state of emergency and sealed off by soldiers and police.

This week Smith visits Portugal, which feels a bond with Southern Rhodesia because it is fighting black nationalism in neighboring Mozambique. From Portuguese Premier Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, Smith reportedly hopes to get a promise that if he breaks away from Britain, Portugal will immediately recognize Southern Rhodesian independence and stand by to give economic and military aid, if needed. Prime Minister Kenneth Kaunda of Northern Rhodesia claims to have a copy of a secret agreement along these lines already drawn up between Portugal and Southern Rhodesia.

Out of the Garden. Next, Smith will go to London for the promised talks. The result is almost certain to be a deadlock, and Smith could then return home strengthened in his agruments for a bolt. The final steps apparently are planned. A group of Tory M.P.s last week told the British government about a Southern Rhodesian plan, which, in addition to the agreement with Portugal, supposedly calls for 1) dictatorial rule by Smith as part of a triumvirate; 2) arrest and expulsion of the British Governor and military commander; 3) trade boycott of Northern Rhodesia; 4) seizure of all means of communication. To make all this more palatable to Britain, Smith is reportedly ready, even after a break, to offer continued loyalty to the Crown.

Smith denied the plan, without dispelling the impression that he is considering something more or less like it. But before attempting a move, Smith seeks a final sanction in two parliamentary by-elections to be held Oct. 1. These elections are being contested by the new Rhodesia Party. Its founder: Sir Roy Welensky, who is trying to make a political comeback after tending his little vegetable garden outside Salisbury since January.

Welensky, who will himself run in Salisbury against a candidate hand picked by Smith, was once a symbol of white supremacy in Africa. But he opposes a violent break with Britain, and is far more inclined than Smith to allow the blacks at least a gradual share in ruling the country. Pleading for reconciliation, the "elephant" thus, ironically, offers for the moment the only slim hope of halting Southern Rhodesia's total commitment to white supremacy.

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