Whites in the red
From Mr Nicholas Field Sir: It is dispiriting to see The Spectator guilty of making the same generalisations that it so roundly condemns in others, particularly in an otherwise sensible article about the Zimbabwe crisis (Leading article, 18 August), a subject it normally treats with great good sense Far from being the 'beneficiaries of a grossly inequitable land distribution', a significant proportion of white farmers in Zimbabwe took out enormous loans to finance the purchase of their farms, and then worked exceptionally hard to service those loans. Most farmers are in debt; indeed, one of the most pernicious effects of Robert Mugabe's anarchic land programme is that banks are reluctant to offer cropping loans to designated farmers. Not, of course, that being designated or otherwise counts for much these days — the lynch mob strikes where it will.
Nicholas Field
Zimbabwe
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