Bitter Harvest

by Ian Smith

  But there was a growing feeling, especially among the younger people, that Rhodesia had come of age, and that it was time for genuine freedom. The Liberal Party had always taken the lead in this campaign and had initiated debates in Parliament. There was no opposition. Huggins had said: ‘We can have our dominion status tomorrow — the British government has assured me, after our exemplary record, it is there for the asking.’

  But Huggins had come to the conclusion that an even better idea was Federation with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation would be workable, big enough to be economically viable. At afternoon tea once, he said in my presence that the British had told him how impressed they were with the Rhodesians’ overall performance, their efficiency, their economic success, their honesty and loyalty, their racial harmony — no one could fault us. Whereas, by contrast, the colonial policy was a failure, Huggins said, and the British were hoping that we could transpose our successful system to Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

  This sounded sensible and right, and the important thing was that we were working with people we could trust, the British. We had always worked together for our mutual benefit, and stood by one another when the need arose. We were in the fortunate position of dealing with proven friends, in fact with our own blood relatives. There were some who believed that in a crunch they would drop us, but I found that difficult to believe. Nevertheless, my instinct and training told me to be prepared for every contingency — after all, the British people had rejected Churchill after the war, and those socialists certainly had some strange principles and philosophies, so clearly there was a need to be on guard.

  The plan for Federation was formulated, the legislation prepared, a referendum of all voters was held, and a clear majority supported the Federal concept. Generally my nature is to support positive, as opposed to negative, thinking. Although I had reservations, I decided on balance to support the campaign.

  At one stage during the debate in Parliament, I asked for the insertion of a clause to the effect that if the Federation ever broke up, then Rhodesia would automatically be given its independence, in keeping with the current situation where we were being given a choice between independence or Federation. This certainly had the effect of putting the cat among the pigeons, and sent the government benches and their advisers running hither and thither. Eventually, however, they returned with the perfect reply: regrettably, my suggestion was impossible to execute, because one of the vital conditions of the Federation was that it was indissoluble, and any attempt to undermine this principle must be rejected. A main reason for this was that the new government would need to raise loans for development. Furthermore, explanatory talks were already under way and any suggestion that the Federation could be dissolved would destroy all these plans. Another problem was: who would accept responsibility for debts if the Federation broke up? It seemed a straightforward, honest reply. History, however, has proved the opposite. Looking back on it now, as always, it is easy to be wise through hindsight!

  Nevertheless, I had always favoured some sort of closer association of territories in British Central and East Africa. The economic opportunities were clear, at least. It was also obvious, given post-war British thinking and colonial policy, that this was the last chance to create a great new state which might eventually include South Africa. Thus, along with other members of the Liberal Party, I joined Huggins’s new Federal Party on 29 April 1953, and I was elected to represent the Midlands in the new Federal Assembly on 15 December.

  The new set-up was a big change for us, especially as Salisbury had been chosen as the Federal capital, resulting in two Parliaments in Salisbury, Federal and Southern Rhodesian. In addition there were many big new developments, such as a Central Reserve Bank and Federal law courts, and the mining, industrial and financial houses from the two northern territories established their head offices in the capital city.

  The politicians from the two northern territories became part of the scene: from Northern Rhodesia, we had Roy Welensky, who had been the leader of elected members to their council. He was an old warhorse who had been leader of their Railway Workers’ Union for many years, and between this and his political activities he had developed many qualities in the art of tactics, negotiation and oratory. One of their black representatives, Douti Yamba, had a facility for talking on any subject, for any length of time, and a ready smile no matter how tough the going. From Nyasaland we had Malcolm Barrow as leader, a well-known tea grower, quiet and urbane, and their leading black representative, Orton Chirwa, a lawyer, who was one of the most able debaters in the House, always cool and collected.

  The talk was that Huggins was contemplating retiring, and Welensky was his obvious successor. There was not much offering from the Southern Rhodesian side. Julian Greenfield was an able lawyer, who had earned himself a good reputation practising as an advocate at our bar, and as a cabinet minister his performance was immaculate, but he was such a quiet, retiring person that he never came up for consideration as a leader. Apart from him, there was a fair amount of dead wood at the top which needed trimming. Welensky and Barrow were knighted and Sir Godfrey Huggins went further up the ladder and became Lord Malvern — all part of the normal system of acknowledging loyalty to Britain.

  The Federation went well right from the beginning, with both internal and external confidence mounting, resulting in new investment and economic expansion. The great Kariba dam and hydro-electric power plant was constructed on the Zambezi River, and has been a tremendous asset, not only in generating cheap, clean power, but as a fantastic tourist and holiday attraction with magnificent big-game viewing, fishing and luxury cruises. The Victoria Falls is upstream of Kariba lake, fortunately still preserved from human predacity, and will always rank as one of the wonders of the world. Coupled with Kariba, the Zambezi River, the Wankie National Park teeming with its herds of game and big cats, this must be one of the most exciting tourist packages to be found anywhere.

  Malvern retired as Prime Minister in 1956, and Welensky’s succession was smooth and uncomplicated. But problems were developing at territorial government level, with Garfield Todd, the new Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister, advocating policies which were not only out of step with public opinion, but which would play into the hands of extremist black politicians at the expense of moderate black opinion. To our north there was a build-up of power-hungry revolutionaries, and the injustices and suffering which they had inflicted on the mass of the people whom they deceitfully claimed to represent had become patently obvious.

  It was the Suez crisis of 1956 which first sounded the alarm, and brought those of us associated with Britain and the Empire face to face with the hard reality that Britain could no longer call the tune on the international stage. The United States was now in the driving seat, constantly propagating the philosophy that colonialism was inherently bad and that the pace of its elimination had to be stepped up.

  The Americans joined forces with the Russians in this anti-colonialist campaign, albeit for opposing reasons. The Russian plan was for world conquest, the takeover by Marxism-Leninism. As the metropolitan powers pulled out of their empires, the Russian plan was to move in. The Americans, on the other hand, believed that the presence of the colonial powers was denying them the opportunity to develop in these areas the expertise, skills and economic success of their free enterprise system. Sadly, they seriously misjudged the situation.

  First, the Russian plan was organised and well laid, their reconnaissance forces already present on the ground in the countries concerned. As everybody knows only too well, in the fields of espionage and propaganda, the Marxist-Leninists are world beaters. Moreover, it is common knowledge that once they control a country, the free enterprise system goes out the window — and that is exactly what happened in every case.

  The second point, which should have been obvious to the USA, was that wherever Western colonialism was the vogue and the free enterprise system thriving, with American skills, capital and equipme
nt everywhere — big mining and industrial development, motor cars, heavy transport, earth-moving equipment — all doors were open to everybody, including the Americans. But once the Russians moved in, everyone else was frozen out. So the result turned out to be contrary to the United States’ expectations. However, there is no way of correcting these mistakes, we have to live with them. This is easy for the Americans: they live 10,000 kilometres away and can go on living their own lives. The problem lies with the people on the spot, who have to go on living with the disaster forced on to them. The truth of this will become patently clear as the rest of my story unfolds.

  For a period things looked good for the Federation, and Welensky succeeded on 27 April 1957 in extracting valuable concessions from Britain: the membership of the Federal Parliament would be increased; the British government would legislate in Federal matters only at the request of the Federal government (similar to the Convention which applied to Southern Rhodesia); there could be no secession from the Federation, and the review conference due to be held in 1960 would produce a programme to enable the Federation to become a full member of the Commonwealth, with dominion status. We could not have asked for anything more — but from past experience we could not help wondering what was included in the small print. However, the concessions gained were positive and gave us hope that Britain was going to stick to its guns and honour its commitment to make a success of this great new concept for Africa. The necessary legislation was enacted in early 1958, and approved by the British Parliament. It was all very encouraging.

  Meanwhile, Todd had acted positively in the territorial sphere in Southern Rhodesia, and had dealt surprisingly firmly with black agitation, which was beginning to rear its ugly head. He even went so far as to invoke a state of emergency in order to crush the trouble at Wankie, the big coal mine in north-west Matabeleland, in February 1954.

  But the other side of his character was ever present, and there was a constant feeling of unease among the members of his division of the United Federal Party over his tendency to give priority to black political advancement at the expense of economic and material advancement. The question came to a head when his cabinet colleagues discovered that behind their backs, he was involved in talks with Joshua Nkomo and the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, the leaders of the newly revived Southern Rhodesian African National Congress, which was engaged in massive intimidation campaigns in the battle for support among their own people. Clearly this placed them in the category of terrorist leaders. In the new year (1958), Todd’s cabinet resigned and at an emotional Congress in Salisbury, Todd was defeated and Sir Edgar Whitehead elected to replace him. Whitehead was not a good choice — a bachelor, he was a bit of a recluse, and when he had a few drinks in the evening he tended to fumble and stumble. His election was a panic measure, concocted on the spur of the moment, and proved to be a disaster which lead to the party’s downfall. A couple of other potential candidates would have been better choices, but declined to offer themselves. We were discussing the problem during the Congress lunch break when Bennie Goldberg (the Federal Minister of Education) summed up the position succinctly by commenting: ‘In the final analysis, if we have to choose between Todd and a donkey, then it’s the donkey!’

  Whitehead returned from Washington, where he was serving as the Federal diplomatic representative, to take over as the new Prime Minister. Constitutionally it was now necessary for him to become a Member of Parliament, and the manner in which this was planned highlighted his inept judgement. There were a number of safe seats, which he could have chosen for a by-election, but he opted for the constituency of Hillside in Bulawayo, at the opposite end of the country to his home-ground of Umtali. It therefore came as no surprise when he was defeated on 17 April 1958, as there was a growing feeling that the government was distancing itself from the views of the electorate, and Matabeleland in particular took exception to having this intruder dumped on them.

  This precipitated a general election on 6 June, at which Whitehead and his United Federal Party managed to win seventeen seats in the thirty-seat Assembly with the assistance of the preferential vote, a new device being used for the first time in the country, and without which they would have been defeated by the Dominion Party, which increased its holding from four seats to thirteen. Todd and his new United Rhodesia Party were eliminated. Clearly, the Rhodesian electorate were concerned, and the entrenched establishment could no longer take their support for granted. On the other hand, the Dominion Party, the main opposition, left a lot to be desired, as within their ranks one could not discern men of well-tried and proven records. They owed their recent success to the negative aspect of the electorate’s disenchantment with the government’s performance.

  The End of Federation

  The Federal government also went through a general election on 12 November 1958, and there was strong support for Welensky and the party, winning forty-six seats or two-thirds of the House. They were conducting themselves well and there was little criticism, in contrast to the territorial government and the Todd débâcle. Welensky brought a few new faces into his cabinet. Some of my friends believed that I should have been given the agricultural portfolio, but this went to John Graylin, a lawyer from Livingstone, an able, quiet, decent person, and he did the job well.

  As a consolation I was made Chief Whip, and appointed as our representative to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, both of which took up more of my time, but my family and farming interests were left intact. My old friend Bennie Goldberg became Minister of Education — this was a subject which had always been dear to my heart, and I had served on a number of parliamentary committees, so Bennie, a bachelor who had little experience in this field, was always grateful for the liaison we developed on the subject and often invited me to participate in meetings with ministry officials. There are few things more satisfying than being able to make a contribution to the education of our children.

  However, a few ominous changes in the British government’s attitude began to reveal themselves, subtly and covertly at first, but with more black politicians to our north beginning to flex their muscles, the British displayed no desire to oppose their extravagant demands, and hence the dreadful philosophy of appeasement gained momentum.

  At the last Federal election the Dominion Party won eight seats and the quality of their members helped to keep the government on its toes, something which was absent in the previous Parliament, where there was virtually no opposition. Their leader was Winston Field, a well-known and respected farmer who had served as President of the Rhodesian Tobacco Association. Among others: Clifford Dupont, a lawyer with a Cambridge degree, was a popular and capable personality; and Robbie Williamson, a chartered accountant from Gwelo, was known for his financial acumen. They were destined to play a part in the defeat of Whitehead in the 1962 election.

  Meanwhile, there was a change in the British government’s attitude on the question of colonialism, at first faintly discernible, but steadily and ‘diplomatically’ growing in emphasis with the passage of time. Not only the Suez crisis, but the constant anti-colonialist pressure from the USA was beginning to tell. The well-known and tried policy of gradualism and evolution, with the accent on the local people having adequate training and preparation, was rapidly fading into the background. We were entering the era of the ‘scramble to get out of Africa’.

  There were a couple of countries in west Africa where the British had been ensconced for 100 years and which had long been recognised as the first in line for independence and, if the timing were advanced by a few years, that could be accommodated. The Gold Coast (Ghana) was the classic case, to be followed by Nigeria, and these would vindicate the wisdom and practicality of Britain’s policy.

  History, of course, was to prove no such thing. Ghana was the first, in 1957, to be brought, with much pomp and ceremony, to independence. It looked impressive and everything possible was done to assist in making the process a success. Clearly, Ghana had much in its favour: a sound
economy, a well-trained civil service brought up in the British traditions of honesty, discipline and efficiency, and the goodwill of world opinion, hoping for success in this great new experiment. Nigeria was set to follow in 1960.

  The talk in British political circles, however, was that as far as east Africa was concerned the time scale was different, and the granting of independence would probably take another fifteen years. This was important, especially with regard to placating the white population of Kenya, who had been encouraged to settle there after the First World War and actually to buy and own land, contrary to previous colonial policy. This encouragement was repeated with even greater emphasis after the Second World War.

  But all this was of little concern to us for many reasons. First, our Federation was a refreshingly new concept, brought in at the instigation of the British government, with Rhodesian concurrence and overwhelming Commonwealth support asssuring us that this was the solution for our area. There was the unequivocal commitment that, once Federation was accepted and implemented, there was no going back. The constitution did not permit dissolution. Moreover, the ink was still not dry on the additions to the agreement that Welensky had just brought back from Britain, and these included a reiteration of the declaration that there could be no secession from the Federation and an undertaking that the British government would legislate in Federal matters only at the request of the Federal government. What more could one ask for?