Back Ian Smith
Sir: I read Stephen Glover's piece 'Chameleons in Rhodesia' (15 April) with considerable interest and it seems clear to me that the Western Powers' failure to support the internal settlement can only have disastrous results. Brezhnev has already made his intentions for Africa perfectly plain and it is high time the West did likewise.
That the internal settlement was only wrung out of Ian Smith late in the day under intense military pressure is of course true, but in view of the position taken by successive British governments on majority rule for Rhodesia our attitude ought to be one of better late than never and a firm commitment to back the agreement both diplomatically and with military aid it necessary. A show of muscle is the only kind of response that expansionist military dictatorships like the Soviet Union ever respect — something which by now I would have thought was an historical truism. Certainly Alexander Solzhenitsyn has been telling us so for long enough and he if anyone ought to know.
C. J. Arthur
Belle Vue House, Low Fell, Gateshead-on-Tyne
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