COPPERBELT UNREST SIR,—In 'Portrait of the Week' (September 21) your
commentator refers to the Northern Rhodesia state of emergency and to the strikes and riots on the Copperbelt as being 'caused by growing racial discrimination in the area? This remark would not be important were it not that it is a manifestation of the ignorance and anti-settler prejudide that is so widespread in circles in the UK which should know better.
A Royal Commission headed by Sir Patrick Brannigan is now sitting to investigate the causes of Copperbelt unrest, so it would be impertinent for me to deal with this subject at great length. I will therefore content myself with stating, without fear of contradiction, that whatever the Commission may find to be the cause of Copperbelt unrest, it will not be the one suggested in your columns. So far from this being the case, there is no doubt that the precipitating cause of the present disturbances has been tensions set up by the African advancement that has recently taken place in the copper industry.
It seems inevitable that the Englishman at home will always assume that the Englishman abroad is always in the wrong. An outstanding instance of this was when one of your con- temporaries, at the outset of the Mau Matt rebellion, attributed all the fuss to a stunt put on by the Kenya settlers. This attitude plays into the hands equally of the die-hard Euro- pean domination party and the revolutionary black domination party, and it makes it even more difficult for moderate Europeans and Africans who are striving for racial equality and harmony.
On behalf of this large and mainly in- articulate group, may I appeal for a little more study and a little less prejudice?—Yours faith- fully, A. C. FISHER European Hospital, P.O. Box 98, Luanshya, N. Rhodesia
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