By Any Other Name

After the acrimonious conference of former British colonies at Singapore in 1971, it seemed as if the sun might be setting on the Commonwealth. But all 32 member nations, representing more than a quarter of the world's population, sent heads of state or surrogates to this year's conference in Ottawa. When the talking ended last week, the Commonwealth was still intact--or, at least, in roughly the same loose association it has somewhat incredibly maintained since its birth 42 years ago.

Not that all the talk was civil. Britain, which sort of made the whole club possible by at one time ruling virtually all the other members, came in for some buffeting. Uganda called Britain a hotbed of racism. British Prime Minister Edward Heath suggested that if anybody was racist, it was Uganda's President Idi Amin. He accused Amin of "callous inhumanity" in his expulsion of 50,000 Asians. (Amin was not present; he had stayed home, perhaps mindful of how he had deposed Milton Obote while Obote was at the Singapore conference.)

Curiously, Australia's new Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam seemed to rile Heath more by warning the underdeveloped Commonwealth countries to beware of multinational corporations. Heath retorted that if Whitlam had problems with such corporations in Australia, he should enact antitrust laws. "That would ensure competition," the British Conservative leader said. "But," he added, cuttingly, "that is not something socialist prime ministers like to hear."

India and other members expressed concern about the loss of special trading privileges through Britain's entry into the European Common Market. And African representatives again pressed Britain to take stronger steps to isolate two former colonies, white-supremacist South Africa and Rhodesia. But, all in all, there was never quite the slanging match that developed in Singapore over British plans to supply arms to South Africa.

Still, the most composed person in Ottawa was clearly Queen Elizabeth, who is titular head of the Commonwealth but takes no part in the discussions. A British newsman suggested to her at a reception that "Commonwealth" was a rather drab word to describe the vast polyglot community of nations represented at the talks. "Well," Her Majesty replied, "we used to have a different name for it."

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