tremble to cross swords with the redoubtable Quoodle, particularly on
a colonial issue, but he has had at a swipe at me and I must defend myself. 1 was one of those who recently, in a letter to The Times, 'dilated on the strength of moderate white opinion in Rhodesia'—'Spectator's Notebook,' Liecember 24.
I do not think, after six years' experience of it, that I overestimate the strength of moderate white opinion in Rhodesia. But I do believe that it is often underestimated, and that this opinion should he quickly strengthened by all possible means. It is, at present, timid and inarticulate. It is timid because it is ruthlessly intimidated not only overtly by the Smith administration but also, more subtly, by social and economic pressures in business, in the children's schools, at the club. It is inarticulate because there is now no opportunity to make its voice heard in the press, on radio, on TV.
The Kenya situation was radically different. Thanks to the benevolence of successive Secretaries of State for the Colonies, including Quoodle him- self, the British Government was firmly in control of the government, the armed forces and the police in Kenya. Even in the depths of the Mau Mau emergency there was free speech, free association, fair play for all, under the very watchful eye of the British Parliament. These conditions do not obtain in Rhodesia.
The Prime Minister, in the recent debate on oil sanctions, likened Mr. Smith to a burglar who was prepared to negotiate on the basis of keeping his swag as a free gift. 1 would rather put it like this. Mr. Smith and his fellow-conspirators have hi-jacked the Rhodesian train. Hundreds of white passengers (and about four million black passen- ger's) are most anxious either to get off or to bring the train back to the normal schedule on the main line. Not an easy job to do this, particularly when the driving cab is strongly fortified, there are armed guards in each coach, and there is no automatic braking system!
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