Curiouser and curiouser
RHODESIA TRADE JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE
As the figures of trade with Rhodesia which I gave in a recent article in the SPECTATOR have been widely used (without attribution, but don't let's quibble about that) by various authorities as new evidence of the immorality of foreign governments or the failure of sanc- tions, according to the users' preferences, I had better bring them up to date. The monthly statistical bulletin of the OECD for June, re- cently published, turns out to be even more remarkable than the April and May bulletins from which my previous. figures were drawn. Here is the latest state of play (the figures are for the first four months of 1967 compared with the first four months of 1966, unless otherwise stated): 1. Exports to Rhodesia, from: France -+ 100 per. cent Germany + 64 per cent Holland + 50 per cent All EEC* + 6 per cent Japan + 38 per cent 2. Imports from Rhodesia, to: Switzerland + 71 per cent United States* + 50 per cent Belgium* + 10 per cent * First quarter only Undoubtedly the most striking of the new figures is the 50 per cent rise in American imports from Rhodesia during the first quarter. For the British government—typically—takes a much more serious view of breaches in the embargo on purchases from Rhodesia, which are of direct advantage to the Rhodesian eco- nomy, than it does of the replacement of British exports to Rhodesia by those from other countries, a replacement which only damages the British economy (what right- minded person in Whitehall cares about that?).
So we now face a situation where our two major allies, France and the United States, apparently see no reason to disguise their con- tempt for the whole sanctions exercise. Last week George Thomas, the endearing and irre- pressible Minister of State at the CRO, treated the House of Commons to a blinding glimpse of the obvious: Her Majesty's Government, he assured us, was not responsible for the actions of the French government. That being the case, might it not be advisable that we
should, to coin a phrase, abandon 'the practice of passing moral judgments on foreign gov- ernments'? After all, it would surely be too much to expect that the Franco-American example will not prove contagious.
One last point. George Thomas also accused me of choosing the figures which suited my argument. I plead guilty. But surely the remark- able thing about the OECD statistics is not that many of the member governments should pro- vide the OECD with statistics showing a decline in their trade with the 'rebel regime'; but that any of them should supply figures which show an increase.
Previous page
