The Creation of the Federation of Central Africa

Sir Roy Welensky (1907-1991) was prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1956 to 1963

Ted Eustace continues

 In my official travelling round the Rhodesias and Nyasaland, there was little to be noted that was exciting economically. I had though seen a lot of East Africa while I served in those parts and the low levels attained locally were thus not surprising. The Capitals in my new sphere of operation were mere villages or very small towns and not exciting ones – the standards of government, both central and municipal were far from high. The agriculture in Southern Rhodesia though showed very high knowledge 1n Virginia tobacco culture, and the marketing methods ware an eye-opener. Here too the minerals produced, including gold, asbestos and chrome, were becoming very important to the economy, bringing in some twenty million pounds sterling per year, In Northern Rhodesia, copper mining was at last recovering and there was a good deal of planning to open at least two new and big mines. Hera though, agriculture was completely indifferent. The very poor member of the area was Nyasaland, her exports were limited to tea -- her tobacco production was small and not of good quality. Then too she was overpopulated in no small way.

It was hardly to be wondered at that the United Kingdom began to consider the advisability of bringing the three territories together in some form of federation. Southern Rhodesia did  not regard the concept with any enthusiasm. NyasaIand would be as much of a burden in the federation as it had been to the United Kingdom for many years. Northern Rhodesia had, it is true, her copper mines, which were very important; but the colony had very few whites in it that could be regarded as permanent settlers - the miners and the Government officials plus a large percentage of the trades-people were temporary sojourners and they would not permanently enrich the white group that was steadily increasing in importance in Southern Rhodesia.     .

Britain, however, insisted that "union is strength" and all had to agree in the end that a federation should be tried. When the federation was more or less forced through, the obvious one to lead the Government was thought to be Sir Godfrey Huggins. Leadership in the two Northern territories had be largely been restricted to Civil Servants who not only administered the countries but also provided most of the persons for their own limited forms of legislature. Their leaders in the mining field, in agriculture and in commerce, had very limited experience in the truly public sphere. So Huggins was made the Prime Minister and had no easy task to find colleagues. From Northern Rhodesia came Sir Roy Welensky and Sir Malcolm Barrow came from Nyasaland - these two seniors ln their own land were soon to prove of indifferent calibre In the new Federal Cabinet but their countries had to be given a part in the new set-up. Southern Rhodesia provided several members of the Cabinet who soon proved their quality. The sector to gain strength and great strength was the new C1vil Service.  Senior Government officials from Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, did a lot to enrich the capacity of the Federal administration.

The Federatlon proved much more credit-worthy so new and bigger loans were secured by the Government and the private sector too managed to find more, much more capital. The Railways were aided by the Anglo American Corporation to the tune of about ten million sterling, in a loan of some four thousand railway trucks of various kinds, but in the main ones that would make the transport of copper and coal more certain. The collieries at Wankie were revamped to provlde the greater needs of the Copper Mines of the North. The Kariba dam and its hydro-electric power station was finished. The Iron and Steel Corporation at Que Que, in Southern Rhodesia, had a big dollop of new capital so that more iron and steel could be produced. The first step were taken to turn local chrome into ferrochrome. The farming community received e big boost and several industries began to be consolldated– cement, fertiliser and several others. The very good electric power grid was much strengthened. All the parts of the Federation began to enjoy almost boom conditions, relatively.

The small diplomatic and consular corps began to have some real meaning - and socal life began to be really hectic. My trips that I had to make to thes other two parts of the Federation took on a completely different meaning. Staying at the two Government Houses at Lusaka and Zomba and spending a day or two at several of the superbly run Copper Companies' Clubs was a real experience, where Federal/South African relations were built up. It was on one such occasion in Zomba that I was able to do a little more for W.N.L.A. and our mining labour requirements. The Southern Provincial Commissioner discussed the poverty in his Province with me and mentioned that he would be glad to see the number of miners that went to South Africa increased. I asked if I might talk about this matter to the Governor and the suggestion was welcomed. That night after a very good formal meal held in my honour I discussed the proposition with the Governor. He was to hold an Executive Council meeting the next morning and promised to recommend that our quota be  increased from five to ten thousand per annum. Ex-Co agreed to this, to my delight.

When the Federation had been in existence a couple of years a whispering campaign commenced against Sir Godfrey Huggins, who had by that stage become Lord Malvern. He was very old -  and he was almost stone deaf - both these points were true but the conviction was that Lord Malvern provided a leadership that no one else could give and this was a conviction that I knew  the Governor General,  Lord Llewellyn, supported. Sir Roy Welensky. badgered Malvern to retire, but was fobbed off with the statement that Malvern was not ready to retire. Both of these leaders discussed their problem with me and possibly with others. Malvern accused that Welensky had very little savolr faire -Welensky complained that Malvern had given an assurance that he had every intention to retire but did not do so. I chortled but side-stepped offering any views to either of them.

.l did, however, come to the assistance of Sir Roy when he announced to me that he wanted to go to South Africa to pay his respects to the Prime Minister and to several Members of the Cabinet. I asked the Department to ensure that Welensky got very special treatment, which was in fact accorded. The Press of both countries highlighted the visit and the stock of Sir Roy undoubtedly received a boost. He had formerly been regarded as the Northern Rhodesia Labour/Union Leader or the ex-Boxer or even the man of mixed origin - a Jewish father and an Afrikaner mother. It must be recorded that Welensky showed his gratitude to me in several ways thereafter.

Few had any doubt about the success of the Federation and all was nearly as merry as the proverbial marriage ball. There were senior Africans, like Dr Benda who resented that his land was not progressing to a Black State, some such people were put inside and little notice wes paid to the disturbances created by individuals.

At this stage though the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom decided to visit several parts of the

Empire and Commonwealth 1n Africa - Kenya, the Central African Federation end South Africa were certainly included. His talks to leaders in the first two countries mentioned, caused some storms.

There were to be big changes in Africa - the whites could not expect to control for aver - in fact, there were already signs that the blacks were determined to use their numerical preponderances to grasp power. He must have carried his views to Caps Town. In no small way for it was there that he made his historic speech about the "Winds of Change”.  The thinking was revolutionary for a man in his position, especially the implied warning that the British possessions in the Continent would be part of the predicted change. We got to know in Salisbury that the British High Commissioner in South Africa had virtually written the speech for his Prime Minister, Mr Harold MacMillan, and pretty certainly it was the High Commissioner who coined the phrase "the Winds of Change.

The full implications of the warning though were far from clearly seen, at that stage. Towards the end of 1955 I again made a visit to Northern Rhodesia for our exports to the mines and the country generally were rising rapidly. I took with me our Trade Commissioner, Mr. W. Barnard and Mr J. Eyssen, the Information Officer. We stayed a couple of days at Government House in Lusaka and the Governor was full of vague thoughts of how the whites could continue to play a big part in the different colonies when the real effect of the "Changes" started.

It was at Government House that I began to have my own personaI worries. Our M1n1ster, Mr Erlc Louw knew that I was in Lusaka and he directed a letter to me on an urgent basis at that address. He wanted me to agree to come to Head Office in Pretoria as a kind of personal assistant to him to begin new work that would concern better South African relations with several parts of Africa. New parts on the continent in the main were in his thinking.

I would have to do a lot of travelling to such parts. He seemed to lay special stress on the idea that I would work directly under him and not be an ordinary member of the Department. This seeming divorce from the Secretary of the Department rather bothered me. There was too the unusualness of his not sending me his letter through Mr D.D. Forsyth in the conventional way. He mentioned my service in Kenya and in the Federation and implied that I was the.one person who had `experience of a rather special kind in Africa. I had been zestful about our general relations with other states in Africa as the Departmental records would prove. From Kenya, after seeing the real values of the Nairobi office, I recommended that an office should also be opened in Salisbury and perhaps other capitals In Africa. To this letter I had no reply but General Smuts told me that he did not favour this suggestion at that stage for he and Huggins were in such close contact that a mission in Rhodesia was unnecessary. From Washington I made a further recommendation officially that some form of diplomatic mission should be opened in all three High Commission Territories and I offered myself as the chief of one such offlce. Again I had no reply from the Department, not that I feIt sure that there would be immediate reaction to my suggestion. My reply to the Minister, to his communication, which had in some ways excited me greatly, was that I had a mere three years to go, would it not be better to train someone that was younger. I mentioned also that I had been hoping that I might be allowed to stay on longer in Salisbury, where our High Commission was really beginning to pay good dividends.

But my chief worry was that l could not discuss the problem with anybody and I was perturbed that the Secretary of the Department would not regard the idea, of a form of special assistant to

the Minister, with favour. This feeling was in part confirmed when I had a chance of talking to Mr Forsyth - he bluntly stated, I felt, that my problem was one between my Minister and myself*.

So I tried to get en appointment to see the Minister to discuss the matter and was told to appear in Pretoria one day when I was en route to Natal for a family holiday - but Mr Louw had been forced to go to Durban unexpectedly on the day arranged and I missed him. It was a period of very mixed thinking and I was sensitive about my indecision.

Fate treated me unkindly - the Minister pretty obviously resented what he might have regarded my vacillation, and within a few weeks decided that as I was not keen to come to him in Pretoria, he would have to use me elsewhere and I was posted to Brazil, much to my distress, real distress. Things might have been so different had I been able to have a talk to Mr Louw, with whom I had, from Rome days onwards got on well.

 Hindsight makes me realise that when faced by a most unusual puzzle. ensure that the matter is discussed with the person chiefly concerned. I should have flown to Pretoria as soon as I returned to Salisbury from Northern Rhodesia.

On our departure from Salisbury to Brazil we were seen off by a great number of people, official end unofficial. Three such people were Sir Roy Welenskv, Lord Robbins, the Chairman of the British South Africa Company and Colonel Sir Ernest Lucas Guest. All three of them tried to extract a promise from me that when I went on pension - I had three years to go - I would return to Rhodesia where they assured me plenty of remunerative work would be found for me. 

My five and a half years in Salisbury had been a great experience and one that both officially and privately I felt warm  about.

A further note may be of interest. When I left Salisbury South Africa’s exports were topping 40 million South African pounds per annum.

 Note added in 1992:

*Mr Forsyth shouted that in no circumstances would he allow me to go to Mr Louw in such a manner that I would be out of his, Mr Forsyth’s, jurisdiction.

The South African High Commission in Salisbury : 1950 - 1965

By Ted Eustace 

Somewhat unfortunately I cannot remember if I was ever told of the actual reason for the setting up of our office in Rhodesia, .but the reasons could have been largely general and our Archives will doubtless have the full particulars.

On leaving Pretoria by train for Salisbury, I was seen off by the Chef de Protocol - my first compliment of this nature. As stated in my former report, Mr Roy Gale accompanied ma and even at that stage was hardly conventional as he arrived late at the Pretoria station and had part of his luggage wrapped up in a newspaper. I forced him to remedy this latter matter in Bulawayo by buying an additional suitcase which was just as well for we were met formally et Salisbury by the Secretary for External Affairs, the Controller of the Household (Government House), the Aide de Camp, the Head of the Army and the Commissioner of Police. Here poor Gale again failed to distinguish himself for he put our luggage into a private car and not into the limousine sent for us by Government House. Here I have to give Gale his due: He worked hard with great ability and got through an enormous amount of work while he was e member of the staff in Salisbury. In fact I wondered at times if I overloaded him, but he did little overtime at any stage as far as I can remember.

  

In some way that was difficult to understand, the Rhodesian Government booked us in at the second best hotel and not the best. The next morning I called on the Secretary for External Affairs and also met the Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Huggins, later to become Lord Malvern, whom I had met on several occasions in Nairobi, whilst on duty in East Africa. The Under Secretary of the Department afterwards took me to see a small and dilapidated building in the centre of town which I was assured was the only accommodation than available. Pockett's Cottage was truly a cottage and a tumbledown and dirty one at that.  Insisted that we would work from the Grand Hotel, that was not so grand, until the cottage had been white-washed and all the weeds in the garden were cut down - they were many feet high. Our office boy had also to do the cutting. When we moved into the two bedroomed house, I had the diningroom as my office, Mr Gale had the one bedroom and Mrs Sheila   Steytler, the attractive and most able secretary that  we recruited, had the second bedroom. The small kitchen was used by the messenger and a very bad pantry had to serve as our stationery store. The kindly P.W.D. lent us some furn1ture and the Government provided us with a car and a.driver for our first month. 

  

The hurried opening of our office in Salisbury was initiated by the Department to ensure that I would be ranked, as is usual in the Corps Diplomatique, as senior to the British High Commissioner who was also expected about the same time as I arrived. He did not, however, arrive till some six months later and I was then told that as he came from the United Kingdom, under whom Rhodesia fell constitutionally, he would rank as my senior. This I accepted 8S largely natural but nevertheless taunted the Secretary for External Affairs with the statement that he should have insisted on recognised Corps procedures and that he should not apply rules to me, as though for a game of marbles.

We did not stay long in Pocket's Cottage as we found rooms that were very much more suitable in the old Salisbury Board of Executors Building on Manica Road. There we lived for about two years and then transferred to the Sanlam Building which had just been completed and which even now houses our much larger Diplomatic Mission.

Official Residence

The Rhodesian Government also helped us to get a house for my family who arrived some two months after I did. The building itself was large enough end pleasantly furnished for a private family but it was about six miles out of town, right in the country and we got to it after driving for at least five miles along the most dusty road I had even driven on. Here we stayed for six months and would have stayed longer but the owners returned from their long holiday in England and wanted their home. We had to seek another house and were lucky in getting one for a similar period of six months. This house was in town, on Lanark Road, on a pleasant site only a mile away from our office, shops and schools. We had been instructed to seek a good house which our PWD would purchase if they approved of it. Salisbury was though overcrowded and there were few houses that were of a calibre of an official residence. The Chief Architect of the PWD was sent to Salisbury to assist us in our search but he too failed to find anything suitable.

Our tenancy of the Lanark Road property came to an end and it looked as though we would all have to live in an hotel. The Secretary for Agriculture, a South African in origin, however, came to our assistance and let us have his home in Deary Avenue for six months on condition that we housed his daughter aged about eleven, who was attending a school in Salisbury. The Secretary and his wife went to live on their farm some miles outside town. Public Works officials from Pretoria paid a second visit to Salisbury and agreed to purchase No.1 Ross Avenue, a house still owned by the South African Government. Small though it was we loved the Ross Avenue property and garden, a garden in which we held four highly successful parties to celebrate Union Day, holding the parties in the morning and having upwards of four hundred guests. Here I must mention that I was given the sum of £100 annually for this function. ; The mineral waters for such occasions tended to cost about £60 And there were other and greater expanses!

Staff

The following people were members of the Salisbury staff at various times Mf Roy Gale, Mrs S. Steytler, Mr A.J.F. Viljoan. Mr F. Ferreira from our Information Services, Mr Hennie de Vllliers, Miss Carry Durwig, who succeeded a woman whose name I cannot remember, of the Welfare and Pensions Department, Mr J. Eyssen, who succeeded Mr Ferreira, Mr W. Barnard of Commerce and Industries and Mr Willem van Heerden, who succeeded Mr Viljoen In addition we recruited e number of woman locally to fill typist and reception posts.

The Pensions clerks were appointed to reduce the work that had been done on behalf of our Pensions Department by the Rhodesian Treasury - they pleaded that our office taka over the payment of our own pensioners. Some eighteen hundred pensioners were concerned. At the beginning of our responsibility in this matter, the work was most burdensome but we gradually rationaIised the exercise, something that was possible due to the very very able Pensions girls that were sent to us by the Pensions Department, as it was then called.

               .

I had been appointed as H.E. Mr T.H. Eustace on the basis that as a High Commissioner it was correct so to call me. But after some weeks I realised that the Department was not correct in describing me as an excellency. Southern Rhodesia was not fully sovereign and could not really accept Diplomatic representatives, either of Ministerial or Ambassadorial status. When South Africa appointed me as High Commissioner, and when the British sent a High Commissioner to Salisbury, they were merely using a title that suited themselves. In London where the Dominions all had High Commissioners, it was necessary to have them rank with the Ambassadors who were accredited to the Crown, but the courtesy titIe of Excellency was not truly correctly used in Salisbury. I wrote to Pretoria expressing my views, which were accepted and the title of Excellency was dropped .

  

My appointment and that of the 8ritish High Commissioner started off the opening up of several consular offices, including those of France, Italy, Germany, the United States, Belgium, Holland and India. Portugal had had a Consul-General in Rhodesia before my arrival. We all formed a very happy group, got on wall together and made an acceptable sector of the local social life.

  

Special Problems of the Period

The relations between neighbour states tend to vary; if one country is large and the other is small and relatively unimportant, if the populations have different languages, if one is poor and the other is wealthy - many factors make for sensitivity. In Southern Rhodesia a high percentage of the whites were of South African origin. Some such families had left South Africa because of their antipathy to the National Party Government. or so they asserted locally. Some of the Afrikaners who had recently come to Rhodesia from South Africa resented two facts in particular - for them, people to whom political life was very important, there was no place in the Rhodesi political sun. Then too they were in a minority. As many of them had come to the country to farm and as they were proving that they were of the best of the farming community, that would have high ranking in any part of the world, it rankled that they had to suffer e degree of superiority and even arrogance from the English speaking sector. Some of these Afrikaner farmers gave me a bad time both officially and personally. Matters were exacerbated when an Information Officer was sent to the South Africa Office in Salisbury who was to marry into the family of the most aggressive of the local Afrikaner farmers.               .

My attendance at all Dingaans Day ceremonies enabled me to meet a big percentage of the Afrikaners. Most of them were very friendly to me and to the local Magistrate who also came to the ceremonies. The two or us, the only English speaking people present, had to listen, somewhat naturally to long and at times blistering attacks on all English speaking people both in South Africa and Rhodesia. The Magistrate doubtless was expected to make full reports on the occasions and such reports were likely to have been brought to the attention of the Prime Minister, who was also the Minister of External Affairs. I omitted to make any detailed reports to Pretoria. I am though

tempted, here, to "mention that on one occasion, to my distress, the principal speaker, a Professor from Stellenbosch, asked me, when the service was finished and in the presence of a group of people, if I had liked his address and he could hardly have been surprised when I made a negative reply.

A mention of two further matters worried me at these meetings - the Union Flag was always flown at the entrance of the Dingaans Day Camp and .the anthem "Die Stem" was sung. I feared that the local Press would get to hear of these two matters and so describe them that real bitterness would result.

I mention this set of circumstances linked with the Dingaans Day services for it was obvious that anti-South African attitudes were building up fast. The newspapers did nothing to reduce tension, in fact they seemed to take real joy in providing fuel for the flames. Several occurrences must be quoted. Some of them were not reported to the Department at the time, that is acknowledged.

(1) About three weeks after I started duty In Salisbury I was invited to be the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the Rhodesian Chambers of Industry. My speech dealt with the advisability of investigating in depth the requirements of the Africans, both rural and urban, to see how many things could be fabricated locally and inexpensively to fill the needs. I was thanked for an imaginative contribution and then a senior industrialist asked for permission to speak. Why had the representative of a really unfriendly neighbour state been invited to address the meeting? This government was undoubtedly building up a Sudetenland problem. He went on to add that it was well-known that half a dozen members of the South African Cabinet had recently bought farms in Rhodesia, etc, etc. He even implied that my very appointment was significant in the circumstances. I grinned but made no reply.

               .

(2) I naturally had a nameplate erected at the entrance of Pocket's Cottage, using both of our languages on the metal strip. One morning I arrived at office to find that the Afrikaans title painted on the strip had been scratched out. I said nothing either officially or privately to either of the Governments but had the nameplate repainted. There was no further mutilation. Letting either Government know of the incident or permitting the Press to highlight what had happened would not have improved the interstate relations, which were going through a poor patch.

(3) The Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Huggins, made e public speech about this timethat was definitely anti-South African. I was instructed officially our" Prime Minister, Dr Malan, to make a strong protest. This I did and took the precaution to give Sir Godfrey an aide memoirs on the "matter and at the same time asked for written reply. When the reply was later received, it could hardly have been regarded as a straight-forward answer to a legitimate complaint.

 (4) I was asked to open the Agricultural Show at Blndura: One of the executives of the Show Society complained that asking the representative of an unfriendly state to perform this function was wrong. The President of the Society thought fit to tell me about this saying that the men had been utvoted. I pretended that the objection was a matter of little consequence.

These little incidents made me realise that I had arrived as said before at an unfortunate period of our interstate relations. My refusal to believe that such affairs were likely to be permanently upset, proved right.

In this atmosphere Rhodesia had to hold an anniversary of importance. Our office was asked to approach the South African Government to sand a representative to attend the ceremonies. My first approach failed, so I returned to the problem and implied that more good than harm would be done if someone really senior could be nominated to attend. To my joy, Dr Jansen, then the Minister of Native Affairs was asked to attend and agreed to do so. I had some qualms about his nomination as I had always been under the impression that he was most austere. It was arranged that he should stay at Government House. He delivered a very sincere speech at the principal ceremony, which made an excellent impression and this speech received full publication and favourable comment in the Press both in Rhodesia and South Africa. I got to know Dr Jansen welll and never had any doubts about him again. He in fact showed marked kindness to me and my wife on several subsequent occasions. His visit was in fact one of the good things that happened in the period.

It was not though only little things that were difficult, and I will itemise some of the matters that had to be tackled by our South African Office in Salisbury.

Interstate Railways

Shortly before we arrived in Salisbury, a new General Manager of the Rhodesia Railways, serving both Rhodesias, Colonel Sir Arthur Griffin, was appointed. He had been General Manager of the Punjabi State Railways in India, where he could hardly have been loved. He certainly proved a stormy petrel in Rhodesia. I paid an official visit to Bulawayo a couple of months after taking up my appointment and was invited to a tete-a-tete luncheon at the Griffin home. At this meal I had to listen to a long list of South Afrlcan Railways misdeeds, that Rhodesia, according to the' Colonel

suffered from. Most of these misdeeds ware attributed to our General Manager, Mr Heckroodt. My report on the luncheon tirade caused Mr Heckroodt to pay a visit to Bulawayo some weeks later, when the two General Managers had a real set to. Mr Heckroodt then came to Salisbury to see me and to itemize the Rhodesia Railways crimes, or more particularly those of the Colonel. Inter alia many hundreds of South African Railways trucks were being used by the Rhodesia Railways for sending their goods to Beira and even to the Belgian Congo, etc, etc.! I suggested that our Railways should have a senior representative stationed in Bulawayo, the Railways Headquarters, who would be able to attend to details and thus possibly lessen the amount of friction that had built up. My suggestion was turned down by Mr Heckroodt as it had been turned down by Slr Arthur Griffin, at the unpleasant luncheon.

At about this time I got to know the Chairman of the Rhodesian Railways Board, General Sir Clarence Bird, who had little love for Sir Arthur. It was obvious that many of the difficulties being experienced by the Rhodesian Railways were due to their lack of financing. Sir Clarence told me that it would take some seven million pounds sterling to make the system viable and in those days this was a very large sum.

Somewhat later South Africa began to use pressure of various kinds to persuade Rhodesia to build a railway line to Beit Bridge. All such pressures were countered by Sir Arthur and by his Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Huggins. They both contended that their earnings on the line though Bechuanaland were likely to be badly affected by a second railway line. I proposed a guarantee by the S.A. Railways that no such damage would be caused. When this was turned down by both sides, I tried to get acceptance of the idea that our Railways should buy the line from Vryburg to the Rhodesian border and recommended that our offer should be a generous one. This proposal too was not favoured. It needs to be borne in mind that the line and appendages from Vryburg to Bulawayo belonged to Rhodesia as the successors of the B.S.A. Company, who had built the railway on this route. The S.A. Railways though had run this sector for over fifty years and more. It seemed highly rational that we should not let the Rhodesian Railways possess a line within the Union and that we should make an attractive offer for it at a time when the Rhodesian Railways were desperately in need of a large sum of money. But either South Africa was itself short of capital or was not prepared to do anything to help Rhodesia, when there had been a build-up of bitterness between the two countries.

Mr Heckroodt retired end to my delight Mr D.H.C. du Plessis was nominated as his successor. He soon came to Bulawayo to make friends. In this he was not entirely successful but he managed to evolve a modus vivendi. To my relief he appointed a senior Railway-man in Mr van Zyl Hibbert as the Railway repreaantnt1ve in Bulawayo. The former custom of trying to ensure co-operation during a fixed time telephonea conversation, that took place every Thursday morning and which both              .

Sir Arthur Griffin and Mr Heckroodt had insisted upon, was greatly improved. Mr du Plessis arrived a few days later in Salisbury to stay for a couple of days to put me into a greatly improved picture.

Conflict over Railway matters though was not to end entirely. South Africa badly wanted the rail link with Beit Bridge to cope with rapidly increasing exports to the two Rhodesias. The Union, feeling that their cause was logical, appointed an international commission of railway experts to make recommendations on the problem of where a second railway line should be built. At first it seemed that South Africa would win and that the commission would pronounce that there was no doubt that the Belt Bridge proposals were the only logical ones, but on visiting Salisbury the Commissioners changed direction and gave support to the idea of building a line out of Rhodesia to Lourenco Marques that neithar touched Beit Bridge nor entered South African territory. Both Sir Arthur and his fellow knight, Huggins, were undoubtedly in the woodpile. Southern Rhodesia managed to find the money to build this latter line.

          .

Native Labour

During the early fifties Rhodesia increased farming acreages under tobacco very rapidly. As this industry is intensive labourwise, using a man per acre, the local farmers were soon in difficulties. Rhodesian Africans were and still are far from keen on the really hard work associated with tobacco growing and curing. A system of getting a large percentage of the labour needed, from both Nyasaland and Mozambique, was built up, but the South African gold and coal mines also wanted these categories of labourers. Competition built up and in one  respect e o t the Rhodesian Government behaved poorly, to say the least of it. W.N.L.A. had for many years sent in recruiters and transport into Rhodesia, from Pafuri, who took a route along the borders of Rhodesia and Mozambique and on this route managed to pick up labourers who fell outside of the SA/Mozambique agreements. Rhodesia had given tacit approval of this procedure. Suddenly the Minister of Agticulture published a Notice in the Government Gazette that prohibited both the use of the transport route and the recruiting of the Mozambique labourers. I called on the Minister to protest, saying that such summary action, as between neighbour states, was both unusual and unfriendly. He knew this full-well but dismissed the complaint tersely.

I tried and succeeded in helping W.N.L.A. during a visit that I later paid to Nyasaland as will be shown later in this report. The Association though asked for my further support to get Angolan Escudos allotted to them by our Reserve Bank. I doubt that my letter had special value for the W.N.L.A. had a good cause. Natives returning from our minas to their homes in Eastern Angola were routed through Barotseland In western Northern Rhodesia where the Association had a very effective section of their organisation. They needed the Escudos to exchange for the South African Pounds that the Angolans were carrying home with them in considerable quantities. In the wilds of eastern Angola the natives ware given mighty little for their Pounds. Our Reserve Bank somewhat later agreed to supply W.N.L.A. with the Escudos that they needed. To show gratitude for my intervention and to give me a better knowledge of their operations, I was invited to visit the truly wild parts of Barotseland that were concerned. It was certainly interesting, but I have never' had such a strenuous journey - bad and almost impossible roads across the Kalahari desert sands and in intense heat, along the western banks of the Zambezi provided a grim if memorable experience.

South African/Rhodesian Trade Agreement

This Agreement had been in force for some years when I arrived. It might be said that an attempt had been made by the bigger and more affluent neighbour to benefit the smaller partner to the Agreement. Agricultural products and a somewhat limited number of Rhodesian manufactures had been entitled to enter the Union on specially favourable terms. At a conference held in Salisbury in about 1951, which I attendsd, Dr Norval, the leader of the South African delegation and the Chairman of our Board of Trade, showed plainly that as regards both such types of goods, Rhodesia could no longer expect most favoured treatment. South African farmers resented the fact that Rhodesian maize, tobacco and other farm products were so highly competitive. Then too Union makers of clothes and khaki clothes in particular were badly hit by imports from Rhodesia. The local papers set out to show how poorly the Rhodesians regarded the definite change in attitudes relating to the Agreement. Frictions of many kinds, even over what was felt to be harsh treatment by our Immigration and Customs officials, at the borders were highlighted in the Press and our office received very numerous complaints from Rhodesians on a variety of grounds.

I believe that the South African Government did a lot to improve interstate relations by her first-class participation in the 1954 Bulawayo Exhibition. It was a truly great occasion - the Queen Mother opened the Exhibition itself, whilst various seniors opened the individual stands. Mr Eric Louw, then the Minister of Commerce end Industries came specially to Bulawayo to open the beautiful and excellently presented South African Pavilion. Our exhibit undoubtedly was the truly outstanding show-piece of the numerous show-pieces. In addition our Governor General, Dr Janssn, and his wife came to Government House in Bulawayo, for several days of the show and proved very gracious guests of the local Governor. The Rhodesian and the South African press commended the Government very highly indeed on our participation.

Keen envoys get egg on their faces

By Andre Jaquet

Keenness was my second name when I was a junior diplomat responsible for press liaison at the  South African Embassy in Washington in the mid-1970s. Remember, those were tough times and all of us wondered whether there wasn’t a better way to earn a living. Like, for instance, being a human cannon ball in a circus. Let me share with you a cameo of my existence at the time.

“There are definitely some advantages in this job and I must enjoy those rather than mope”, I mused. After all here I am, lazily sipping a super South African wine on the terrace of a ritzy restaurant on the Potomac. The evening is balmy and the lovely cherry blossoms compete mildly with wafts of Chanel Number 5.  My Ambassador has asked me to arrange a private, off the record meeting for him with Meg Greenfield of the Washington Post who is on her way to South Africa for an in-depth look at the aftermath of the Soweto riots. She and I are waiting for the arrival of our guest.

Then His Excellency rises to welcome her and without warning launches into a harangue listing the wrongs done in the United States to African Americans by successive white governments. Meg reads the dismay on my face and later over coffee asks me what she will really discover when she travels to South Africa. The best I can do is to mutter: “You will find some things better than you think and some worse”. I was quite proud of the little phrase I had come up with on the spur of the moment.

Five weeks later, the cover of the magazine section of the Washington Post carried a banner headline: “SOUTH AFRICA: IT’S WORSE THAN YOU THINK”.

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Bruenslis in Bokassa's Bangui

  

Emperor Jean Bedel Bokassa

                    By Andre Jaquet

By some quirk of fate my first duties at the Department of Foreign Affairs Head Office included spreading South Africa’s influence in Francophile Africa. This meant intensive shuttle diplomacy, often at inconvenient times, to try and achieve the impossible for a country under apartheid rule. One Christmas in the 70’s I was stuck in the Central African Empire on a hush-hush mission to deliver the latest token of the South African taxpayer’s generosity. This was a sort of Christmas present for Jean Bedel Bokassa, who had crowned himself Emperor.

Bokassa had been foisted on the South African taxpayer by the French government that was tired of funding Bokassa’s Napoleonic dreams. Paris managed to sell the idea of palling up to Bokassa to the South African Cabinet by pointing out that this was a useful means for South Africa to start gaining acceptance in Africa.

Now anyone with distant Swiss ancestors will tell you that Christmas is not Christmas unless you make two full cake tins of Bruenslis. Forget mince pies or kissing under the mistletoe, spurn Christmas pudding with brandy butter and throw the fatted goose or whatever to the cats. As a non-Brit, I am not excited by those reminders of British colonization and I tolerate the traditional South African Christmas braai only because it gives me a good excuse to drink large quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon. But give me a Bruensli and I am all yours.

“What on earth are Bruenslis?” you ask. At this stage, I should warn diabetics to take an extra dose of insulin before reading the following quotation from my mother’s hand-written recipe book:

BRUENSLIS: CHOCOLATE BISCUITS: BONBONS BRUNS

Ingredients:

250gr of chopped almonds

            250gr of sugar

            2 whites of eggs

            80gr cocoa powder

             4 gr cinnamon.

Mix well. Let the dough rest. Roll out with sugar, cut out.

Oven: mild. Just dry the biscuits out.

That sounds easy, unless you try to bake those cookies on a hotplate in an un-air-conditioned hotel room in the middle of the tropical hot season in Bangui, capital of the Central African Empire.

Having bowed and scraped to the Emperor, I returned to my hotel from the palace in the jungle and I somehow managed to put together three whole pseudo-Bruenslis using sugar, Milo and peanuts.  Mind you, I had to eat them with a spoon but I suppose that tradition deserves some sacrifices.

Bruenslis were also a wonderful comfort when I was on Operations Room duty at Head Office one Christmas eve. There was absolutely nothing to do because all colleagues, whether on posting abroad or at home, were doing the sensible thing. That year I fielded just one phone call from a journalist at midnight. The conversation went something like this: “Hello (Munch) this is Foreign Affairs. (Crunch). How can I help you? (Swallow). No, we have not invaded the Comoros Islands over the weekend. Goodbye and a merry Christmas to you too.”

My first day on the job

Union Buildings

                 By Andre Jaquet

At 08h00 sharp on my first day at the South African Department of Foreign Affairs I knocked on a solid teak door and stepped boldly into Room 221a in the West Wing of the imposing Union Buildings. “Real life is beginning!”  I said to myself.

A grey, dour man seated behind a large desk looked up as I entered and then carried on writing with an expensive looking fountain pen. I had been instructed to report to him, having been assigned to the Francophone Africa desk. I waited for about five minutes and when he showed no signs of life other than his scribbles, I cleared my throat and said in my best Afrikaans, “I can see that you are busy Sir. Shall I come a bit later?” His pen stopped in mid sentence and giving me a sour glare, he spat out “We don’t like eager beavers in this Department. You may go”. I watched, dumbfounded, as his pen moved on, away from the blue blot it had by then made on the cheap, government issue paper, before I beat a confused retreat to the adjoining office.

There I sulked for an hour or so and as I was putting the finishing touches to a vitriolic letter of resignation, the grey man, looking somewhat less glum, instructed me to accompany him to introduce me to my new colleagues. He knocked on the first door and we entered the office of a dapper senior diplomat. At the same moment, a pretty brunette flew off the lap of the seated envoy whose face was bright red, not out of embarrassment but from a broad smudge of lipstick.

At that point I decided that my letter of resignation was perhaps premature and that a diplomatic career might after all deserve a trial run. That trial period lasted 34 years.

The Day I got to scramble the South African Air Force

SAAF Puma

One of the many consequences of the South African government’s policy of apartheid was that it was deprived of access to sophisticated arms as well as search and rescue technology by bodies such as the United Nations.  As a result, we were not able to upgrade the search and rescue capability along our long coastline.  In spite of this, the outside world still looked to us for assistance whenever any of their ships were in trouble.  One such incident occurred in 1980.

The Danish government approached the Department on 12 January 1980 and informed us that one of their merchant marine vessels, the M S “Pep Ice”, had gone aground at Bassas da India in the Mocambique Channel, and that the ship was in the process of breaking up.  We were asked if it would be at all possible to rescue the crew from the stranded vessel.  

I approached the South African Air Force and asked if they were able to assist.  As I had expected, their immediate response was that it was impossible as Bassas da India was too far from land for any of our helicopters to make it there and back.  Furthermore, the closest land was Mocambique where we would have to refuel, and our relations with that country in 1980, five years after independence, were not good.  I informed the Danish Embassy accordingly.

SAAF Transall

A few hours later I received a telephone call from General Earp of the SAAF.  He was quite excited and told me that that they had researched the matter more deeply and that they had discovered that there was a gravel airstrip on the nearby Europa Island, which belonged to France.  If the SAAF could get permission to land there, they were confident that they could dismantle a Puma helicopter, stow it in a Transall transport aircraft and take enough avgas with them to fuel the helicopter for the trips between Europa and Bassas, rescue the crew and return to Pretoria.  However, for this to happen they had to get permission from Mocambique to land at Maputo to refuel as well as to overfly Mocambican airspace, and they needed permission from the French to land on Europa Island.  

This was conveyed to the Danish Embassy with the request that they obtained the necessary authorizations from the French and Mocambican authorities.  Meanwhile the SAAF was making its preparations to depart as soon as the requisite authorizations had been received.  While the Danes were involved in getting the necessary authorizations, I considered it prudent to inform our contact in the Mocambican government, Sergio Vieira, of developments.

Obtaining French permission was simple and it was given immediately.  The Mocambican angle was considerably more difficult.  Because of the parlous state of relations between South Africa and Mocambique, the Danes felt that it would be essential to obtain the approval of President Samora Machel himself.  The problem was that the Danes did not have representation in Maputo, so they approached the Swedes for assistance. 

They in turn were informed that the President was out of town and that he would only return to Maputo the next day.  In view of the fact that the weather was worsening and the ship was in danger of breaking up, the Swedish Ambassador realized that time was of the essence.  He managed to ascertain exactly where the President was and went out to see him.  At 2am he managed to get the President’s approval, and by 3am I was able to scramble the SAAF.

By 5am the three Transalls were on their way, one carrying the Puma helicopter, the second carrying the fuel and the third taking the personnel.  When they arrived at Maputo airport at 6:30am, they were completely unexpected and the Mocambicans thought they were being invaded by the South African Air Force!  The planes were required to circle for a while until the tower managed to find out that the mission had been authorized by their President.

After refueling, the three aircraft left for Europa Island, and by 3pm that same day, the helicopter was on its way to Bassas da India.  The crew later reported that they were overcome to see this solitary helicopter coming from nowhere to pick them off the ship while it was breaking up.  Then the whole mission reversed itself, and by 10pm the Danish crew arrived at Waterkloof Air Base outside Pretoria.  Naturally we made quite a bit of this rescue, and Minister Pik Botha and members of the press were out in force to take photographs and interview the somewhat bemused survivors.

Fourteen years later, I was Consul-General in Chicago and was invited to a dinner to welcome the newly-arrived Danish Consul-General, Bent Kiilerich.  Over a very convivial table, for some reason I related the story of this shipwreck.  One of the American guests remarked that it sounded quite preposterous, whereupon Kiilerich calmly remarked that the story I had related was perfectly true.  Unknown to me, he had been the Danish co-ordinator of the rescue in Copenhagen and he assured the guests that it had been quite difficult to get all the role players onto the same page!

I may also add that the rescue itself elicited considerable comment from aviation experts and admirers in view of its technical difficulty and the innovative way in which the SAAF solved the problem.

   

Eric Broekhuysen

Guinea - Bissau ... more memories

By Rene Franken

I made a few very interesting visits to Guinea Bissau, the first being in June 1989, before the ANC top Brass was released from prison. It was only for a few hours. We went by private plane belonging to Anglo- Vaal. Glenn Babb, Colin Paterson, Colonel Thackray from the SADF and myself, flew into Bissau from Cape Verde.

Our acquaintance the Cape Verde Foreign Minister, Silvino da Luz, arranged for this visit. It must be mentioned that at this stage Guinea- Bissau had  Marxist one party rule and we had no connections whatsoever with that country. The purpose of the visit was to talk peace (especially the Angola situation) and to see how they could be included with the other Portuguese speaking countries in Africa, the so called PALOP-Group, to assist with any reconciliation between the rivalry groups in Angola The next day we met Jonas Savimbi,Unita President, in Abidjan. 

I mention all of this because I wanted to write something about Guinea Bissau. We spent a couple of days in Guinea Bissau and our contact, Finance Minister Manuel dos Santos (Manecas) actually a Cape Verdean, but was a prominent leader in the rebel movement in the war against the Portuguese there, until independence and since then he was actually the number two in that country. Paul Runge (SAFTO), Nelia Botha and John Deacon from the SA Panorama and myself where on this trip. We visited a number of places in Guinea Bissau 

The purpose was to make a future edition of the SA Panorama on Guinea Bissau which subsequently appeared. One night we were having dinner at the old Portuguese army barracks which was later transformed into a hotel, when a person suddenly appeared which I immediately recognized but could not place. He also reacted recognizing me but at a loss to who I was. I went to him and he told me he was working in Bissau to set up a television station there with Portuguese government help and that he worked before for the television station on Madeira. Then I realized that I knew him from my stint on Madeira and that he was guest in our residence there. He was really surprised that we, as South Africans, were there as this was still all considered confidential. 

Conversations from Guinea - Bissau

Paul  Runge writes of his visit in 1989 to a country with which South Africa had no diplomatic relations

    

                           

 "Welcome to Guinea-Bissau, Is this your first time here?"  The short chap with a beaming face and a crooked tie is called Vasco. He tells us that he works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that he will be chaperoning us around the country for the next three days. He shows us to the VIP lounge that is filled with large wooden West African statuettes and masks. Some of the bulbs are out and the room is semi-dark.

Our arriving flight was delayed, it is already quite late and we are dying to get to bed - wherever that may be.

"You will be staying at the new hotel. It's big and comfortable. It's the first modern hotel in Bissau. It shows that our capital is becoming more important. The Portuguese did not leave us much you know".

The hotel is indeed new and modern. After settling in, someone in our party has the bright idea of going for a swim in the hotel pool. Outside, it is hot and humid and there is constant buzz of millions of night insects. All the lights at the pools ide have been switched off and there is a sign in English and Portuguese telling us that the pool closes at 18hOO. But the light from a bright, full moon washes the whole area and we plunge into the shimmering, lukewarm water. Lying, floating on our backs, someone starts telling unseemly jokes and the laughing seriously disturbs the sedate atmosphere of this euro-centric island in the heart of lesser-known West Africa.

The next morning we have a meeting in town with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We drive past old Portuguese-style buildings whose dilapidated exteriors are partly concealed by overhanging creepers. "Bissau used to be a small town but it has got busier since independence. There are many more Senegalese traders in the streets and more ships at the harbour..You will see tomorrow when you go to the islands with the Minister".

We proceed down a corridor made narrow by piles of old files and papers heaped unevenly against both walls. Even from the dusty waiting room I can see through the glass partition into a storage room filled with more precariously piled documents.

"Not much bloody computerisation going on here," mumbles one of our party. "All these ex-Portuguese places, Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tome, Cape Verde and here-they all love forms and formalities".

The Ministry officials are only a little late. We drink some coffee and warm to one another. "Guinea-Bissau needs foreign investment. We have some old factories that need rehabilitation. There is one here that used to produce welding materials. We will show you".

After the meeting, we take a little walk around the town. Most of the local people on the street are clearly very poor and the better garb of the expats and aid workers makes them stick out in the crowd.

Around a corner, we come across a larger, more decorated terrace cafe. At one end sitting alone is a youngish, blonde girl wearing a United Nations sleeveless jacket. "I'll bet she could tell us a few stories about this place". But there is no time to talk to her because Vasco wants to take us into the interior to a scenic place with waterfalls near the Guinean border.

We find ourselves travelling in 4-by-4's along a dirt road that meanders through swamps and thick vegetation. "During the war against the Portuguese, this was by far the worst place. Conditions were terrible. The real enemy for the Europeans was malaria and all the other bad jungle things. No young boy from Lisbon wanted to be posted here". 

The trucks stop at a clearing and Vasco pushes easily against an old gate. Soon we are lying on our backs on rocks next to a series of gushing waterfalls. "We would like to turn this into a proper

national park. We are talking to the Guineans about it. But we will need money .. ."

Supper that night is at an old hotel that used to be Portuguese army barracks. The former mess is now a restaurant. The menu is limited and when the plates arrive, there is the usual Portuguese tradition of mixing starches-potatoes and rice together.

Our last day is a Sunday and the honourable Minister of Economic Affairs takes us to the port for a trip to the archipelago of islands that lie scattered just off Bissau. Old warehouses, old cranes, old boats, but the Minister walks straight to a snazzy vessel owned and skippered by a talkative Italian who tells us that this is the best country he has ever worked in. "There are quite a few Italian companies that want to develop resorts on these beautiful islands - some have started already". He bangs his suntanned chest and laughs, “We spotted the opportunity long before most of the other Europeans”.

The sea is blue and calm, like a huge swimming pool. We pass deserted islands with glaringly white sands and lone palms.

Suddenly the boat slows down and stops. I turn to see the honourable minister pulling off his shirt and longs. He is wearing a baggy costume underneath. He jumps up onto the rail and dives off shouting for us to follow as he heads for the shore of a pre-selected island. We have been forewarned, have the necessary attire and do the same while a rubber dinghy containing all the barbecue equipment is lowered over the side.

A few swims followed by a few beers and steaks later, we are lying on the fine, white sands staring up at the cluster of palms that provide comforting shade against the heat. One of my colleagues lying next to me belches softly and mutters, "This reminds me of the Mainstay Cane Spirit ad - you know the one with the turquoise water, the lonely island with the one palm tree and the girls". He sits up suddenly. "Hey where are the girls?"

That night in my room, I am nursing a fairly serious case of sun-burn. But I'm comforted by the realisation that I have just completed a quick and privileged crop-in to paradise. But then again, I

recall the words from one of my travel books: "Don't fall into the trap of believing it is all wonderful. While travelling here, one should remember that the country is still very poor and that for most people, life is an ongoing struggle to make ends meet".

Memories of Harry Andrews

Hi Tom and Pieter,

While I was at the Embassy in London at some time between January 1977 and October 1981, Harry Andrew popped into the Embassy and asked to speak to one of the diplomats. I cannot remember whether either of you were still there but the lot fell to me and what a pleasure it was. He must have spent an hour or more in my tiny office and told me a similar story about his daughter who he was visiting in London. He told me that he was not accompanied by his wife.

He said that he had not been a career diplomat but a politician and member of Fred Cresswell's Labour Party which went into coalition for a while with the National Party between the two World Wars. He must have stayed on a bit and his daughter got married while he was stationed in Paris. He told me that he had felt honour bound to tender his resignation when she got married. I cannot remember whether or not it had been accepted.

My memory might, however, be a bit fuzzy on some of the details.

Leslie  Manley

More about Lydia Andrews

Dear Tom and Pieter

I was delighted to read your blog concerning Lydia Andrews  - and have a tiny addendum to your story.

Harry Andrews was Ambassador in Washington D.C. when Boet and I arrived there in April 1949 - Boet's very first post, sent there straight from Cape Town where, during the parliamentary session he had been interviewed, accepted and put to work right away. Within three weeks he was told to get himself to Washington - as a cadet just turned 23 - he saw the Union Buildings for the first time ten years later!

  It took almost three months before Boet and I together were summoned to appear before Harry and his wife and be presented in the sacrosanct atmosphere of the official residence - were given a cup of tea and then dismissed - mission accomplished!  Boet said Harry never bothered to greet his staff in the embassy, but made a marked exception when it was female staff!  Of course he was then replaced by Gerhard Jooste  - enough said!

  The sequel came years later when we were in Finland. In that country President Kekkonen gave an annual dinner for Heads of Mission, including those who covered Finland from Stockholm, Moscow and Bonn - about 150 in all.  After greeting the President we took our places at the very long u-shaped table, as indicated on the place cards given us earlier.

   I quote from my diary: " One year at the President's dinner, I found myself sitting next to a charming Pakistani ambassador from Moscow. In the course of conversation I found he could give me news of Princess Catherine Abassi, a lovely English girl married to a Pakistani prince in their diplomatic service whom I had known in Washington D.C.  He was also able to give me news of the daughter  of one of our own ambassadors who had fallen in love with and married a Pakastani diplomat - a cause celèbre in apartheid South Africa at the time!  My dinner companion told me that Lydia's husband had unfortunately been caught up in the division of Bangladesh and Pakistan. For safety's sake he had sent Lydia and their daughter to sit things out in London.

Our animated and long conversation - between a South African and a Pakistani - at this dinner, caused much interest and astonishment at our section of the dinner table, and afterwards people wanted to know what we had been chatting about for so long! The expectation was always that no social intercourse was possible between a white South African and a person of another colour.  The amusing sequel to this was the following year when once again we were all assembled at the President's dinner table. I suddenly heard someone calling from several seats beyond mine. "Mrs Malan!  Yoo Hoo! How are you?!"  It was my friend from Pakistan who had spotted me and was calling to greet me - again to the amazement of other diplomats who couldn't believe their ears! Such small and apparently insignificant events could feel like a major victory!

   I am happy to know now that at least the daughter of Lydia and her husband is apparently well and flourishing - and that Lydia's husband got through their national crisis.  I guess Lydia is about the same age as I am  - if she is still alive. 

 Many thanks to you both for all you have done to keep our stories alive!

Cheers from Dot Malan