Dispute Turns on Majority Rule by Black Africans - Two years ago Rhodesia declared its defiant independence from Britain. Since then, Britain and Rhodesia have locked in a war of sanctions, constitutional principles and legalisms, all so obscure and complex and tangled that outsiders and even insiders sometimes forget what the fight is all about. But the issue is simple. It is the dominance of one race over another, the resolve of Prime Minister Ian Smith and the quarter of a million whites to keep power as long as possible from the country's 4 million Africans. That is why it is pointless to ask a question like, Do sanctions hurt Rhodesia? The question has to be, Do sanctions hurt white Rhodesians enough to make them overcome their distaste and relinquish some power to the Africans? For the same reason, it is pointless to ask, Will the British government settle with Rhodesia? The question has to be, Can the British government, with all its commitments to independent Black Africa, afford to sign an agreement that fails to provide African rule in Rhodesia in the foreseeable future...?

The possibility of a settlement between Rhodesia and Britain grew dimmer Friday as British Commonwealth Secretary George Thomson reported that the two have more differences now than ever before. That pessimistic note came from Thomson at a news conference before he left for London to report to Prime Minister Harold Wilson about his 10 hours of talks with Prime Minister Ian D. Smith of Rhodesia. Thomson's words pricked the ballooning hopes here that the two-year-old sanctions war against Rhodesia would end soon. Britain and the United Nations imposed trade restrictions on Rhodesia after the ruling white minority of the colony declared its independence in defiance of Britain. Hopes had been raised here on rather slight and ephemeral evidence. Some residents, for example, read significance into a remark of Smith that Thomson "seems to be a pretty decent sort of a Scotsman." But, though he told newsmen "I'm hopeful," Thomson made it clear that a settlement would have to be based on more than amiability...