Correspondents' Correspondence

...Heath's much-cultivated image as the strong, silent type is becoming a reality...

...He was Britain's negotiator during the first abortive negotiations in 1961-63, and his zeal for the Market has never flagged...

...At first glance, one might judge Heath's behavior that of a weak man ????Surrounding himself with politicians of distinctly lower ability and thus removing any threat to his leadership...

...Certainly, no one in the inner group of the Cabinet????Anthony Barber, William Whitelaw, or Lord Carrington????could challenge him...

...The agreement also calls for the elimination of racial discrimination, though how and at what rate is left to a commission...

...Since education helps one qualify to vote, the British have offered to subsidize improved school facilities for native Africans...

...Not altogether...

...If approved, the compromise settlement will leave Rhodesia's 250,000 white settlers firmly in control, while opening at least the possibility of eventual majority rule for the 5 million native Africans who form 96 per cent of the country's population...

...in government, they are quickly put to the test...

...Unlike Wilson, the Prime Minister selected a Cabinet of his cronies...

...If the Prime Minister were to fall under the proverbial bus, it is extremely hard to see who would be his natural successor...

...A year ago, the London Times published figures showing that 88,000 whites had left Rhodesia during the five-year period beginning just before the settler rebellion...

...It is generally agreed that Heath is beginning to come across as a personality for the first time...

...At the same time, Heath has scored a great triumph by winning entry into the Common Market...

...The Salisbury agreement creates an additional "higher" African roll with the same registration standards that currently apply to whites...

...It is too often assumed that in politics the image is everything...

...On assuming office he picked his ministers exclusively from among the pro-Marketeers...

...The requirements for blacks are more lenient, but they are allowed to elect ODly 10 representatives, with the chiefs naming another six...

...So, in effect, was Munich...

...Of the two potential leaders who were at the top after the June 1970 surprise victory, Quintin Hogg (Lord Hailsham) has removed himself from the hurly-burly of daily politics to be Lord Chancellor, and Ian Macleod has died, leaving the Tory Front Bench far less impressive than that of the Opposition...

...Salisbury - Sir Alec Douglas-Home has never lived down the misfortune of having been Neville Chamberlain's secretary at Munich in 1938...

...Most whites qualify, and they elect 50 legislators...

...Economically, blacks must pay a "race tax" on their salaries so that the earnings of white immigrants can be subsidized, yet they are denied jobs in their country's civil service...

...Then a constitutional device theoretically will permit the creation of a black parliamentary majority by adding a further 10 seats to be filled by blacks and whites voting together...

...His failure to balance the various interest groups within his party, let alone Left and Right, has made him unpopular in some Parliamentary circles...

...With a straight face, he said: "It's a determined bid by the government to stamp out nonviolence...

...A paradox...

...It is doubtful that a majority of Englishmen really support the move, but Parliament's approval by an overwhelming majority boosted the Prime Minister's prestige...

...Consequently, one third of the white population consists of newcomers, few of whom could legally have acquired citizenship and voting rights by now...

...There is, of course, a negative reason for this...

...To maintain their dominance of Parliament, the settler leaders are likely to pad the white roll with recent immigrants and other white noncitizens by reducing the five-year residence requirement and permitting dual citizenship...

...In turn, the nation's blacks will seek to take advantage of the British commission's presence to demonstrate their feelings, as Catholics have done in Northern Ireland...

...The village chiefs, appointed and paid by Ian Smith's rebel regime, presumably will be trotted out so that what they are told to say can have the same weight as the views of the leaders of the two black opposition parties (both still officially banned...

...Indeed, personal loyalty to him and ideological loyalty to the Market seem to have been the chief criteria for Cabinet positions...

...In the end, however, the crucial factor is the size of the white electorate the blacks must match to achieve parity in Parliament...

...To be eligible to vote, a white must earn $2,500 a year????Slightly less if he has a high school diploma ????or be married to someone of this status...

...That is the extent to which he dominates the Tories, a role many commentators doubted he could achieve in the depressing opposition years of 1965-70...

...That Heath has withstood the test, without recourse to gimmicks or demagoguery, is now generally conceded...

...and so on...

...Similarly, there are two separate electoral rolls...

...But it would be well to remember that all the psephologists, pundits and PR men were proved wrong in June 1970.- John Mander...

...In the Opposition, it is obviously hard to demonstrate those traits...

...Now, however, a marked improvement is evident both in his standing and in that of his party...

...Rhodesia's caste system is based on educational and economic privilege...

...To be sure, many of his policies have failed: Economically the country is not out of trouble????we have the highest unemployment rate since the '30s????And the "tough" Tory remedies have softened to the point that the government is following Labor's old example in helping so-called lame-duck industries like Rolls-Royce...

...Two decades ago, before the Paarl riots, I breakfasted with Alan Paton in New York and asked his views on the spate of apartheid legislation then being passed in his country, South Africa...

...The English also appear to have swung over to a stronger anti-IRA line, and they know that in Heath the IRA has a formidably stubborn opponent...

...Thus respect for Heath has been stealthily growing, even though the British people would probably put in a Labor government if elections were held tomorrow...

...Education is compulsory for whites, who are provided good schools...

...This, however, would occur only with the approval of two thirds of Parliament, in effect allowing the white half to veto the measure...

...But it is not a thing that the country at large cares about...

...For this to be effective, they will have to closely supervise how the money is spent...

...Furthermore, a quarter of the whites in Rhodesia are South Africans, most of whom have not changed their nationality...

...This enigmatic quality, it used to be said, caused his poor showing in the opinion polls????consistently behind Harold Wilson, even when the Tory party was rated well ahead of Labor...

...Can Heath win another election on such qualities alone...

...blacks are given only two years' schooling (some receive even less) in inferior facilities...

...The "let 'em go bust" attitude of 1970 is rarely heard any more...

...He will never be a popular Prime Minister, but he may well grow into a much admired one...

...And so, probably, is Sir Alec's second attempt at waving a piece of paper.????Cussell Warren Howe Heath's Progress London????After 18 months in office Edward Heath remains in many ways the most unknown, and apparently unknowable, Prime Minister Britain has had since Stanley Baldwin...

...Although he is not the mindless ninny depicted by English journalists, Britain's Foreign Minister will probably go down in history, deservedly, as the man of two Munichs...

...Nevertheless, the British mis-sion that came here this month to investigate the pact's acceptability is expected to find it viable, perhaps with some reservations...

...It is in their interest as well to support anything that encourages white emigration or that stimulates inflation to the point where salaries of $2,500 a year are more easily attainable...

...Thus, during the House of Commons debate over the tentative agreement he reached with Rhodesia's white minority government late last November, a Scottish MP shouted, "Someone give him an umbrella...

...Still, the negative argument will stretch only so far...

...The most urgently needed reform is equal pay, given that income rather than competence decides voting rights...

...For sincerity, strong convictions and doggedness????the qualities that were always claimed for Heath????have begun to pay dividends, despite his shyness, lack of charisma, and policy failures...

...at 12 per cent, another two...

...Though it ought to be easy to pin him down, seldom have the professional pundits been so baffled...

...When the Higher African Roll amounts to 102 per cent of the European list, blacks will have gained 34 MPs????Making a total of 28 elected and 22 nominated by the chiefs, and giving them legislative parity with the white 4 per cent of the population...

...Once the number of blacks on this list equals 6 per cent of the white electorate, they will get two more seats...

...They may also lower the franchise to 18, an age at which many whites but virtually no blacks are economically qualified, and try to promote massive white immigration...

...Yet he is a man who talks straight, says what he means and means what he says...

...New immigrants over this period totaled 82,000...

...Many blacks feel the accord promises them a little more than they now have, but most of them will oppose it as a final solution...