'ALL RACIALISTS' SIR,—Your headlining of Leo Baron's article of the
October 9 issue, together with the article itself, con- stitutes yet another of the increasingly biased and misleading reports on Rhodesia, which you appear to take great pleasure in presenting nowadays. Unfortunately, I have not the time to give all my complaints about the article, but would like to mention the following points.
(a) To say that the 'African people certainly believe that the Smith Government regard them as mortal enemies,' can be termed as nothing short of blatant and deliberate distortion of the true situation.
(b) The 'Welensky meeting' episode was con- demned by many Government members, but it should not be overlooked that the approach to the meeting itself, by the organisers, was not conducive to 'having a quiet chat.' It is also conveniently over- looked that Sir Roy has been subjected on previous occasions to far worse outbursts, from such notables as Dr. Banda and other black African leaders. It would also appear that the British and American elections could do with a good dose of tolerance or moderation, which Mr. Baron thinks that only the Europeans in Rhodesia lack.
(c) In the same context, much was made of the incident involving hooliganism against a Eutopean man and his coloured companion. This incident was deplorable, and was rightly condemned as such. The inference that the Rhodesian Front Govern- ment is not far from exhibiting the same irrespon- sibility is equally deserving of condemnation. Great stress and then inference is placed on this one incident, which could be, and, one suspects, was meant to be, misleading. I am interested to know whether Mr. Baron has ever informed readers of the fact that the African nationalists, who receive untold sympathy from people like Mr. Baron, have openly stated and given their approval to cam- paigns of violence which make the aforementioned incident pale by comparison. These aspects of the political scene tend to be played down in overseas interpretations, and it would appear to many that anything stemming from black nationalism, be it right or wrong, is condoned, whilst any opposition to this is immediately condemned as white ex- tremism, and dismissed as such.
In concluding what will no doubt cause some of your readers to class me as a white racialist, I would like to add that I am not, and doubt whether I could ever be one. Very few would claim that the Rhodesian political scene is all milk and honey, or immune from constructive criticism, but many of the articles which appear in the Spectator nowadays do very little to pfesent truly representative reports, and even less to improve the situation.
JOHN MILLER University House, Woolsack Road, Rosebank, Cape
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