Playing it by Ear It has taken Mr. Grimond five
weeks and four public opinion polls to discover that Mr. Wilson is playing Rhodesia by ear, and to express his horror. I am not disturbed when Mr. Wilson is playing by ear: only when he is talking off the top of his head. When last Friday he observed as part of an answer to a supplementary question that 'my view is that at first there will be ad interim a period of direct power by the
Governor'. . Mr. Wilson should surely have realised that he was saying the one thing guaranteed to cement allegiance to Mr. Smith. Pressed by Mr. Heath and Mr. Sandys the Prime Minister promptly (as usual) retreated rapidly until he ended by saying that the period of direct rule might be minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Which made his earlier pronouncement not only unwise but absurd. .
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