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F

lndependenthodesia*We have struck a blow for thepreservationofjustice,

civilization, and Christianity, and in the spirit of ilrisbelief we have thisday assumed our sovereign ndepen-dence. God blessyou all."

With thesesolemnwords, Prime M inister Ia nDouglasSmith, of Rhodesia, ended an historic broadcast onllth Novem ber, 196 5. Thenation-and indee4 thewhole world-now knew that R hodesia no longerrecognized any outside suzera inty; that a little countrywas prepared, fnecessary to de fend ts rightful heritageto its utmost ability.

The Prime M inister's historic broadca st ma rked theend of a twilightof unce rtainty, doubt, a nd at t'mes,deepff{lsffnton. W hile Rhodesians teeled hemse lveso faceup to wha teve r retribution other people migbt see k tovisit upon the'm , tley didso with a great surge of hope,determination-and relief.

All the equivocation, dece itand procrastination werenow ovcr. It wa s like comingout of a dark caveintothe clea n, free sunlight. They would-and if nece ssarythey will-pay anyprice.

It was PrimeMinister Smithwho read the Declarationof Independence. t was Prime Minister Harold Wilsonand his colleagueswho renderedthis inevitable. Theyleft Rhodesiano other choice.

The story re ally be gins in 1923-moro tlan 40yearsago-when Rhodesiabecamea self-governing C olony.From that date, there wa s establishedan unblemishedreoord of progress, stability, justice and orderly govern-ment. Standardsalreadysecond o nono on the continentof Africa we re raisedfor all Rhodesians. Medicalservices , schools, railwa ys, roads, churches, fine cities,housing, factories, technical and agricultural colleges--aUni. ersity-all the things that go to make the modernprogressive tate; the proud legacyof 42yearsof self-rule.Rhodesiahas its faults and has made mistakes. But onbglance t is proud of its achievem e,nts.

Sa vage V ildenressWhenthe P ioneers irst a rrived in the latter part of tho

last century, thrusting through malarial bush in oxwa ggons, thcy found a savage, untamod wilderness.Sickness, ribal war and slavery-along with incrediblyprimitive ignoranco-were the lot of tle comparativbhandful of tribesmen they e'ncountered. The estimatedAfrican population of that. time was about 300,000atmost, Because f the hospitals,doctors and nursing staffintrodued bythose irst white Rhodesians, nd the iarchof civilization, tle African populatiou today has grown

to nearly 4,00 0,000,of which 2,000,000are children-tribute in itself to the country's medicaladvance.

A state wasestablished hat beoame he e nvy of oth*countries in Africa. None could matoh Rhodesia'sachiovementsn social services,econom ic expa nsionandconstant, orderly government.Thro'rghout this whole period, its citizens remaineddedicated to tho British way of life. They based every-thing on tle principles of fair play, toleiance and op-portnnity for all, and they remainedunswervingly oyalto Britain; their deep affection for the Crown r-emainedunsurpassed

FerlerationEstablishedIn 195 3, henow defunctFederation of Rhodesia and

Nyasaland was established. Of the three territoriesinvolved,Rhodesiawas the only one , byvirtue of its self-ruling status, to put the matter square$ to the people na referendum. The answerwas "Yes" and thenceforthModesia put all her efforts

into making a successofFederation-. Economically, tremendous strides weremade .

The story is well known that in 19 63, the BritishGovernmentrejected its own creation and without thsconcruren@of either the RhodesianGovernmentor thooverall FederalGovernment,dissolved the Federation.M ea nwhile, in1961, he Rhodesianpeople accepted,byr-efe.rendum,new Constitutionwhic6 coirferred nO epe n-dence lwithin the Federalframi:work".

The 1961Constitution was the result of round tabletalks betweenall parties and all races,presided over byBritain's then Cdmmonwealth Secret'ai1',Mr. DuncairSandy.s.African nationalists accepted t to a man . .a,ndwitlin daysrepudiated

t to a ma n. It is empha sizedthat, whatevermay now be said, the 19 61 C onstitutionwa s sold to Rhodssia as conferring independence ubjectto Fe deral ties.

When Britain unilaterally dissolvedthe F ede ration, itbecam e appa.rentthat in her eyes, the independenceRhodesia had been granted 'lwithin the Fe deral frame -work" had large lyevaporated-but at the sam e ime, allthe conce ssions nd agreementsRhodesia had made toachieve his non-existent ndependonce, erb still binding.In short, it had been misled into making extraordinarilygenerousconcessions--for nothing.

WhileRhodesiacontinued scrupulouslyto observe he19 61 C onstitutionin the belief tlat it wa s the ba sis forsovereign independence,

he British Government wasclcarly determincdto use the new situation as a meansof swiftly promoting so-calledmajority rule.

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It took two years of intensivenegotiation a nd finallysomethingclose o an ultimatum, to wring this out ofthe BritishGovernment.The 196 1 oncessions ere notenough. The 196 1Constitutionwasno longerconsidereda fa ir basis or independence.

The fundamentaldifferencebetween he Rhodesianan d British Governrhentswas this. Rhode sians elievethat the reinsof govemrnent houldbe held n responsiblehands. The colour of those hands is immaterial. Thema jority of those capableof exe rcising vote, and thusbeing responsible or government are Europeans byvirtue of their cultureand heritage. In time a greaterproportion of the populationwill becom e ligible o voteand therefore exe rcisea n increasingand , it is hope d,responsible nfluence . T he British G overnme nton theother hand believe n what they e uphe mistically erm"majority rule", by which they me anblack rule, whichsblatant raciatsm. The fact that in several previousexe rcises f this kind the one-man-one-voterincipleinAfrica has ed to one election,one party, one dictator-is apparentlyof no consequence.

W hen the London talks broke downin October,1 9 6 5 ,the P rime M inister, M r. Ian S mith,told a P ressCon-ference: "The British Governmenthas categoricallystated hat it no longerbelieveshat the 19 61Constitutionis an appropriate asis or independence. his is contraryto everythingwe havebeen ed to believen the past."

This disclosure. lashed back from London to Rho-desia,was aken asa clea r ndicationby most Rhodesiansthat the British Governmentwas planning to double-cross Mr. Smith,just as it had S ir Roy Welensky,heFederalP rime M inister.

During the talks M r. S mith had offeredthe BritishG overnme nt his full acce ptance of the principles ofunimpededprogress towards majority rule as enshrinedin the 1 9 6 1Constitution. H e offereda meansof provid-ing the freque ntly referre dto "blocking third" againstamendmentof the entrenche dclauses n the Constitutionwith a nUpperHousecomprised ntirelyof Africans. A sthe first representativeof a oountry which hashonouredeveryguaranteeand comm itme nt t hadeverentered nto,he was prepared o offer guarantees nsuring hat therewould be no tampe ringwith the cons titution.

But a s M r. S mith himself said at hispress conference:"Eve ry time we movedtowards them (the British) theymovedfurthe r aw ay from us." It is clea r thatthe onlyconcessions ffered cam e from the Rhodesian P rimeMinister.

Expre ssions f SympathyBut if M r. Sm ith failed to ma ke hea dwaywith the

British G ove rnme nt he certainlysucceededwith theBritish people. E xpressions f sympa thy and goodwillpoured into RhodesiaH ouse from all ove r theUnitedKingdom.

Ba ck n Sa lisburyM r. S mith received further appe alfrom M r. W ilson; R hodesia's rimeMinisterrespondedwith the offer of a solem n treaty guaranteeing heinviolability of the C onstitution. Th en cam e M r.Wilson's drama tic announcem enthat he would fly toRhodesia.

Rhodesians egan o ask themselves:Is he in earnest

this time , at la st? Surelyhe can't still be stalling . . . orcan he?" H ecould M r. W ilson and his Com monwe alth

Re lations S ecretary, Mr. Arthur Bottomley, arrivedwitha n impressive corps of 50 British civil serva nts.

Hopefully, Rhode sians began to wonder if this enor-mous retinue meant that in addition to top level talks,there would be liaison at all levels in the process ofworking out the complicated details of independence.

Mr. Wilson embarked on talks with individuals andorganizations. Of those whom he choseor agrecd to se e,the majority had never received a single vote from thepeople of Rhodesia and were in no way representativeof public opinion.

While the British Frime Minister gave only one hourof his time to the Council of Chiefs (the acknowledgedleaders of 80 per cent. of the African population) he gavenearly a full day to rival nationalist delegations led bymen who had either never fought a n election or who hadnever had a vote of any sort cast in their favour.

Royal CommissionHope surged again in Rhode sia when it was announced

that proposals for the esta blishme nt of a R oyal Com-

mission were to be considered by the two governments.The Rhodes ianGovernment wasprepared o abidebythefindings of such a Royal Commission with the provisothat the Commission's terms of reference should be tofind out whether or not independence, on the existingConstitution appropriately amended to accord with theviews of the Rhodesian Government, was acceptable tothe majority of the people in Rhodes ia .

It is probable that with good will on both sides-andthis wa s certainly forthcoming from the Rhodesian side-the Commission could have evolved its own modusoperandi rvhich would have bee n acceptable o all parties.But on his return to London, Mr. Wilson had clearlydone some rethinking. . . .

In his statement to the H ouse of Commons, he hedgedthe proposal round with so many conditions that it be-came hopeless. For e xample, he laid down how it shouldoperate instead of leaving it to the Commission to makeits own proposals in an interim report. H e insistedthatthe Commission should make known throughout Rho-desia the British Government's opposition to the viewsof the Rhodesian Government, thus seeking to turn anintended impartial body into a propaganda vehicle.

He stated that unless the Commission's report wasunanimous it would be unacceptable-a nd on top of allthat he "reserved the British Government's position a tall stages". In other words, had the Commission finallycome forward with a unanimous report in favour of theRhodesian Government. the British Government couldstill have rejected it.

Rhodesians felt that ha d M r. Wilson really bee nsincereabout the R oyal C omm issionproposal, he w ould himselfhave stayed in R hodesia to rea ch agreement on its term sof reference. Leaving Mr. Bottomleybehind for 2 4 hours,ostensibly for this purpose, was no more than a tokengesture.

The y now believe -and reluctantly so did the R ho-desian Government before it was driven to take the finalstep-that Mr. W ilson's visit with his coterie of civilservants and the later arrival of the British Attorney-General, Sir Elwyn Jones, was a gigantic charade in-

tended to convince the British electorate that: "I dideverything humanly possible."

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affairs history has shown that it may becomenecestaryfor apeople o resolve he political s.ffilialieaswhich haveconnected them with another people and to assumeam ongst other nations the separateand equa l status towhich theyare entitled. . ."

Since hen sanctions have bee n mounted a gainst Rho-desia. A little cynically, Rhodesianshave noted theofficial line ofthe British Partamentary Opposition thatit would not opposesanctions so long as theseare notpunitive":as if sa nctions ouldbe anythingbut punitive.

They have noted the mea suresake n by M r. W ilson'sGovernment-many of them incrediblypetty and spite-ful, and othe rs de stine dnot to undermine Rhodcsia'seconomy swasobviously ntende d, ut world confide ncein Britain's fiscalntegrity.

For example,one of the most paltry and repre hensiblemeasuresnspiredby Mr. Wilsonwa s to b lock paymentto about 2,0 00 Britishpensioners iving in Rhodesia.Thesepensioners, any of them disabledex-Servicemen,had servedBritain well. W hile therewasno lega l obliga -tion on the RhodesianG overnme nt o look after thesepeople,on the grounds of com pass ion nd huma nity it

immsdialelt created a fund so as to honour Britain'sresponsibilities. P ressure in Britain compe,lled hatcountry's G overnme ntnot to renounce ts obligationsto these people; the fund crea ted n Rhodesiawas pu tinto "cold storage"-for use n caseM r. W ilson's G ov-ernment ntroduced further vindictivemea sures gainstthese unfortunates. And sure enough this happenedH aving driven R hodesiarom the sterling area Britainwill now only pay thesepensionsn sterling-a currencywhich is worthless o her pensionersn Rhodesia. How-ever, he R hodesianGovernment ucce ssfully nticipatedthis latest exampleof Britain's chicaneryand will nowoperate ts e mergency ension und.

As for Britain's fisca l integrity,the w orld's fina ncialhouseswill knowwhat to think of a governmentwhichseizes eserves n an e ffort to re solvea politicaldispute.

CuriousPurposeW e do not denythat sanctionsmay createunemploy-

ment-a some wha t uriouspurpose or any governmentwhich claimsto base ts doctrines on the welfareof theworkers The deliberatecreation of economicdistresswh ich willhit thoscwho canleastafford to b e hit (in ou rcase,mostly mmigrantAfricanworkers rom neigbbour-ing state s) s both cruel and futile. The RhodesianGov-ernment has its own plans for the alleviationof anydistress hat may be caused by Mr. Wilson's "crippleR hodesia" strategy.

Let us consider he wider implicationsof sanctions.The cost to the B ritish taxpayer isalready astronomical.Countlessmillions will have to be foundto financeM r.W ilson'sdesigns.

It rsa personal am paign, f couree;Mr. Wilsonknowsthat if-we sayWHEN-Rhodes iawins through,he mayfind himselfin the political wilderness. To savehimself,he is comm itting ma ssive mountsof Britishtaxpayers'mone y to his cam paign. As a corollary he is activelyworking for the causeof world comm unism.

Countries like Tanzania, Ghana and others whichhave had countless millions in aid from British andAme rican taxpayers, are nowvirtually communist satel-liter. Theseare the countrieswhosebiddingM r. W ilson

is rushing to do-while Russia and China laugh on thesidelines.

Cashgrants otalling nearty 919 ,000 ,m0avo ecentlybeen made to Zambia; a further f12 ,000 ,000 will berequired to operate an airlift of dubious efficiencybecauseof inadequateairports, Africa's torrential rains,and distances hat mekethe Berlin airlift look like child'splay

By filching Rhodeeia'scapital res rves in London,Mr. Wilson has beon obliged to assumeresponsibilityfor that country's public deb ts which in one way oranother are guaranteedby the British Government.These ota l 910 8,000,00 0.

The CostEven at this early stage n the exchanges,t is costing

British taxpa)'ets more than f,15 0,00 0,00 0---and histakes no a ccount of Rhodesia's rade with Britain whichlast year injected 35,000,000nto Britain's economy.The costto Britain of having evictedR hodesia rom thesterlingarea s inestima ble.

All this, the best part of f ,200,000,000s only the

startMore sanctions may follow, but they will neither

wreck R hodesia's econom y nor bring down its G overn-ment. They will certainlynot deflect Rhodesia'speoplefrom thecourse hey havechosen or the preservation fChristian valuesand-indeed, the B ritish w ay of life-in this part of Africa.

All thedire predictionsso sedulously romoted n tlreworld's Pressof violenceand mayhem nside Rhodesiain the eve nt of a UDI havebeen proved utterly untrue.They haveust not materialized. Rhodesiahas not "goneup in flames". Indeed,African support forGovernment'saction transcends he highestexpectations.

Rhodesia's Armed Forces, Police and Civil Servicehave loyally continue dto carry out their duties. Com-merce and industry are facing up squarely and dete,r-minedlyto the sanctionsdesigned o smash Rhodesia'seconomy,and these oo, will fail.

W e know that they will have effect, tbat they willcreateausterity and evenhardship. W e arenot dismayedby this knowledge;t is not muchmore han 20yean a gothat m ost of us we re facingsuch difficultie s althoug hnot alone.

WhileMr. HaroldW ilson andhis collea gue s ontinueto try to destroy he peaceof Rhode sia;while countrieswhich haveappropriatedm illions ofpounds n aid fromBritish taxpayers have the impudenceto talk about"expelling Britain from the Commonwealth" unlessBritish soldiers are sent to fight British people; whilernassacres, public hangings and violence-els-ewherenAfrica ostensibly pass unnoticed by the world at large,R hodesia continues as a n oasis of calm a nd stability.

Its affection or the B ritishCrown andpeople emainsundiminished. R hodesiastill flies the U nion Ja ck. ItsNationalAnthem is: 'oGodSave he Queen".

Sovereign,ndependentRhodesia aces he future w ithcaln confidence. t is the earnest esireofall its peoplethat the breach which has opened betweenthe mothercountry and Rhodesia will heal. Rhodesiansbelieve itwill-but not at the price of the de struction of a llRhodesiahas built up.