Lord Richard Cecil
Sir: I have lately returned from Rhodesia and been shown Mr Alexander Chancellor's piece in the Spectator Notebook of 29 April about my son, Richard Cecil, who was working as a journalist in Rhodesia. It was written after my son was killed by a terrorist while filming with the Rhodesian Security Forces.
Mr Chancellor writes that although he 'never met Richard Cecil, he was by all accounts an extremely attractive man and someone who could command extraordinary loyalty and affection.' Then he follows these words by saying: 'It is a pity that the most glowing tribute to him should have come from Mr P. K. van der Byl, the Rhodesian Foreign Minister, for in these curious times such a tribute serves to diminish rather than enhance a reputation.'
I would like to say that my son Richard, who did not give his friendship lightly, knew Mr van der Byl very well indeed over several years, and was glad to call him his friend. He admired him in many ways but not least for his courage and patriotism in fighting to defend the things my son also believed in, and gave his life for freedom and truth. I am proud that he thought my son 'the bravest of the brave'. .
Perhaps Mr Chancellor has not met Mr van der Byl any more than he had met my son. By using the phrase 'in these curious times', he is perhaps criticising the view of Mr van der Byl which appears to be held by the arrogant, and I fear largely ignorant, people in the British Foreign Office and Socialist Government and Party (bus not unknown in the Conservative Party) who occupy themselves with Rhodesian affairs and appear to dislike the white Rhodesians. I would rather think this than that Mr Chancellor has made a facile judgment of Mr van der Byl, or does not admire the same qualities in men as my son did.
Marjorie Salisbury Hatfield House, Hatfield, Herts.
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