JAM TOMORROW
SIR,—Mr. Creighton, in 'Jam Tomorrow,' was a little hard in criticising Mr. A. E. P. Robinson's article written in defence of the Federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. It must be remembered that Mr. Robinson as the Federal High Commissioner has a job to do like everybody else. He is paid to be an exponent of his country's policy, not to criticise it. He could hardly be expected to write to the Spectator about the 'seething discontent among Africans of all classes' which Mr. Creighton calls 'the Federation's more significant achievement.' He would very soon be recalled, remonstrated with and replaced if he did. .
What Mr. Creighton failed to •stress was the absurdity of a High Commissioner having to defend his country in this way. If all I hear is true, the Spectator has not been the only target of Mr. Robin- son's 'Unfair to the Federation' campaign, although it is perhaps the only one to afford him publicity. That he has to resort to such tactics is surely a pathetic reflection on the whole Federal set-up.
Mr. Robinson's more dignified course would be to leave Federal propaganda in the capable hands of the Public Relations firm employed at great cost by the Federal Government to champion its cause in Great Britain and to devote more time to in- vestigating the causes giving rise to the criticism of the Federation in this country. He could then report back to his Government accordingly.
Unfortunately, with a Government that dismisses all criticism of its policies as 'destructive' and 'ill- informed,' his tusk would be a thankless one.
4 Leinster Square, 11/2
CRESWICK WkLLACE
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