Farewell London

John Mills

The long winter of 1950 – 51 was more miserable than usual because the usual allocation of coal per household suddenly came to a stop. There was a great shortage all over England. Luckily we did have the water heated by electricity, but otherwise there was no heating for the house. This situation with a toddler in the family as well as the problem it was to get washing to dry in a rainy climate, did not make life easier. Pam was expecting our second child too, but it took some time before I was able to convince the local authorities of our dilemma, and have a delivery of coal.

Due to no rest on the domestic front, Pam had Hilary’s baby sister, Elizabeth, born April 7, 1951 some weeks before time.  One was only allowed in the local maternity hospital for the first child, and if there was no foreseen problem, it meant having a midwife at home for the second. Luckily, we had found a Private Maternity Hospital in the next County.

 My time as private secretary was now up, my place being taken by a new recruit called George Doxey.  I now found myself involved more and more in conference work. The United Nations Organisation was flexing its muscles and turning its eyes more and more towards Africa, still largely under European control.  To the British, French, Portuguese and Belgians the thought of United Nations intervention was abhorrent.  They feared a deluge of ill-informed, ideologically motivated investigators - particularly the "experts" - those who have been defined as "scientists out of their own country". Against this menace these Governments, together with South Africa and Rhodesia, formed a united front. It was decided to form a Commission for Technical co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara (CCTA) so that they could tell the United Nations that what that organisation wished to do was already being done, and that its presence would therefore be superfluous.

 From South Africa's point of view, the problem was that our experts had been working on a plan of their own which would have involved co-operation with neighbouring territories, particularly in the field of science.

  In the end a compromise was reached and a Scientific Council for Africa South of the Sahara (SCA) was formed to serve as a sort of scientific overview.  Duplication, almost certainly, but South Africa secured the Presidency: its own Dr P. J. du Toit being unanimously elected to the post.  Its headquarters were in Bukavu in the Belgian Congo.  CCTA's was in London under a Frenchman, Paul-Marc Henri.

 Even if the main inspiration for the founding of these two bodies was political, they nevertheless did extremely good work in the years ahead.  The principal benefit was the intimate contact between scientists and technicians working on similar problems - a continuous flow of information at a personal level and far more rapidly disseminated than by publication in learned journals.  There were also opportunities for the secondment of technicians and scientists, the provision of bursaries for study at scientific institutions such as our own world-famous Veterinary Research Institute at Onderstepoort, and the sending of teams to countries with particular problems - the grain-eating finch (quelea quelea lathami) the water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes) the red locust, veterinary diseases such as infectious bovine pleuro-pneumonia etc.).

  The Secretariat of the CCTA was in the British Colonial Office.  I was frequently in contact with them.  Every so often a Working Party would meet, and once a year there was a general conference of all the participating governments.  Differences of opinion were frequent.  One of the fundamental planks of the organization was the principle of unanimity.  No resolution could be carried unless all governments were prepared to vote for it.  This had both advantages and disadvantages.  No government wished to be seen as the only objector holding up an initiative which was supported by all the others.  As a result a great deal of effort was put into achieving an adjustment acceptable to all.  This unfortunately meant that many resolutions had to be so watered down that they were totally ineffectual.

 Sometimes, however, a government would dig its heels in and refuse to budge. I was present at one of these confrontations and found it most amusing.  The argument was between the French and British delegations. When it became apparent that the British would not yield, the leader of the French delegation made an impassioned speech, ending with a ringing statement that he reserved the right to raise the matter again in six months' time.  To this the British leader replied silkily that it would be wrong of him to hold out any hope that in so short a time His Majesty's Government would change its views on a matter to which it attached such great importance.   "We have a saying in English that you can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink!"  The Frenchman replied:  "It can be done.  I was in the French cavalry during the war, and I assure you it can be done.  It's a messy business, but it can be done."  This brought the house down.

  The first CSA meeting was due to be held in Pretoria during that first year.  The question of providing interpretation became important.  One of our scientists had been at a conference in Nairobi where interpretation was provided by an Englishman, Frank Barker, and his services had apparently found universal approval.  South Africa House was instructed to get into touch with Mr Barker at his London address and find out whether he would be able and prepared to provide interpretation at the Pretoria Conference.

I did so, and was able to establish that he would be happy to come on his usual conditions: a flat fee, all transportation and first class hotel accommodation, meals etc.  So I cabled back - "Barker is willing."  Years later at Head Office I dug up the file to see what reaction I had caused.  The answer was:  nil.  It was marked:  "Mr Jones. Good, inform C.S.I.R."  It is probably a mistake to make jokes in Government. So often, however, temptation got the better of me.  "Dulce est desipere in loco.”

 Due to my involvement with the CCTA in London I, later on, became a part of the African section back in Pretoria, and attended conferences in Salisbury (Southern Rhodesia) 1956, Lisbon 1957, Brazaville (Congo) and Angola 1958, and Monrovia (Liberia) 1959, having passed through Accra (Ghana). These conferences lasted almost a month, and our small group returned from the last two looking as green as the suit I had on!

Now came our first transfer.  After four years and a half, I had been looking forward to home leave, and to taking Pam and the children to see their grandparents and South Africa.  Out of the blue came a letter from Jack Bruce, who had been Chief of Protocol, to say he had been appointed as Chargé d'Affaires to open a new Mission in Madrid, and had asked for me to come with him as Legation Secretary.  He added that he hoped I would be prepared to postpone my home leave, adding that it would be only fair to warn me that he believed that, if I applied for it, the result would be a transfer to Head Office!  There can be no other word for this than blackmail, yet I was quite prepared to believe him.  (In those days the Department made it plain that leave was a privilege, not a right.)  In fact, the first home leave we were to have was from San Francisco, twelve years later.   Nevertheless, I was flattered to have been sought for, and accepted the offer I couldn't refuse.

  So began the packing procedure with which we were to become so familiar in years to come.  In addition I had decided, alas! to sell our beautiful Chevrolet. In retrospect it would have been better to take the car with us, but we could not know this, and we feared we might have difficulty in disposing of it in an unknown economic environment. The British Customs would, of course, have to get their cut, so I telephoned them to find out how much this would be. To my utter surprise they suggested a sale price, which was far beyond what I had hoped to get. When I intimated this, I was told "Well, sir, that is our view of what you should obtain, and that is the amount on which we shall be assessing you."  "You mean regardless of what I actually get -?" "That is so, sir." Cor!

  To crown it all, both Hilary and Elizabeth went down with whooping cough. This had been brought to us by the cleaner's child when she knew her whole street had caught it. Poor children.  Poor Pam. She was furious with the cleaner, who now could not come at such a vital time.  It was not pleasant to have your child fighting for breath as the whoops came, but I was at the office all day.  Pam had no respite. Elizabeth was only five months and could not be left for a moment, and Hilary had it very badly. Our doctor did not like the new immunisation which had just come out, as he said the trouble was that children were going around with it and not knowing they were infectious.  Pam did not have sleep for two months while packing up all our possessions.

  We had little time to think ahead of what conditions in Spain might be at the opening of a new post.