“Commonwealth talks off to a smooth start" ran the exciting headline in the Tres, Pictures of Sir Alec Douglas Home surrounded by such familiar ~a0l-birds as Mr. Kenyatta and President Nkrumah are flooding down the news wires, to appear in discreetly prominent parts of the newspapers and in at least the first instalments of the television news. At a loss for something to say about it all, the Times editorial on Taesday, promisingly eeys che ; "m™ho Great Conception", dribbled on about the perils of uniformitys "Uniformity is « trap..The Commonwealth's invertebrate informality...talk of a common charter weebut if the charter were enforced it would disrupt, if evaded it would deepen cynicisme.." Gone, here, are the days when little boys and girls in schools all over the globe stood in still files before the solemn breaking of the flag on Empire day. Cynicism is taken for granted, the great problem of political stratezy is how to avoid deepening it. With Mr. Shastri and the Indian continent indisposed, with the fond memory of the failure of the Common Market negotiations (spelt S-C-U-T-T-L-E), with even Sir Alec about to fall from the central pinnacle, practically all that is left of the commonwealth is the need it imposes on its citizens to switch off the tele for those 5 incoherent minutes at 3. O'clock on Christmas daye
Or so it seems, But there is a much harsher reality. Mr. Wilson has demanded a presence among the ministers, only to be refused. There is much that he, and Labour in general, should be concerned with, In British Guiana, since the declaration of emergency, the casualty figures (in civil strife which is a direct product of imperial rule) heve increased ten-fold. In Cyprus, the Archbishop is tied down in a conflict which has similar roots. In Aden, trade unionists are hunted men, and in the surrounding areas tribesmen and women are being visited with blockbusting bombs, In Sarawak the population is deserting the Malaysian fiasco en masse to fizht for self-determination, In Nigeria, after a tremendous general strike, penal retribution is sought from the unions and Dr. Allen, the British scholar who is charged with sedition. Zanzibar has already shown how such conflicts as these can be resolved, and Tanganyika itself must now seem to be in doubt, as far as the majority of the securely corpulent public figures at Marlborough House are concerned. Their own future is none too certain, In the last century there was a popular myth about the journey from log cabin to the White House, The Sultan of Zanzibar and his entourage have pioneered its 2%th century version, as far as the Commonwealth is concerned: from the White House to the Salvation Army Hostel, Perhaps sombre thoughts of this kind are pressing on the back of the minds of Sir Abubakar Tefawa Balewa, or Tunku Abdul Rahman,as they divest Sir Alec's platitudes and hollow promises, and reflect upon the sad truth thet even a common charter would disrupt their precarious unity, or smother them in cynicism, All the bull, all the heroic cavalier posturing, calculating fraternity and sleazy chivalry has now dissolved back to its basic erisly foundations: cash benefits, These are in no sense assured in a world that has leannt to count, and can see them plainly exposed,
In these circumstances it is important thit Lebour should break its diplomatic reserve, and come out fighting on the side of the disinherited world over which the remnants of commonwealth posture and out of which our own ruling group extorts vital resources for its continued dominance, Whether allowed into this _meeting or not, the hero of the day could be Harold Wilson, fighter for freedom in Aden, Guiana, Malaysia, Ales, at the moment, and this is deeply symbolic, while Labour's organised voice is still, it is a lone socialist, Vic Allen, who is our commonwealth hero. Let us demonstrate our opinion of the farce at Marlborough House by the vigour with which we campaign for his release.