Rhodesia - Economic Blockade and Long Term Strategy

Whichever way one may want to interpret the British Government's recent settlement proposals for Rhodesia, one thing at least is clear: their stated objective is to ensure the long term social, political and economic development of the black majority in Rhodesia. In order to achieve these ends, it has been proposed that sanctions should be lifted and generous aid (that wellknown panacea for underdeveloped economies) should be provided, in return for the acceptance, by the Smith regime, of a complicated set of rules for ensuring political rights for the African population in the long term. But the intriguing question, which arises from our observations, is whether the continuation of the economic blockade may not perhaps be a more effective means towards the achievement of these same ends.