Mrs Appiah Waits For Release Of Husband

Press, Volume C, Issue 29691, 8 December 1961, Page 2

Mrs Appiah Waits For Release Of Husband

tßv SUSAN VAUGHAN]

Few people can have failed to be impressed daring the last few weeks by the resolution of Mrs Peggy Appiah, whose husband is in prison in Ghana. Mrs Appiah, aged 40, daughter of the late Sir Stafford Cripps. Chancellor of the British Exchequer, had a big decision to make when her husband was arrested. Should she return to Britain to the family holiday home in Gloucestershire until the Ghana political situation was more settled? Or should she stay put, waiting and hoping for her 38-year-old husband, Joe, to come home from gaol? Not an easy choice to make —particularly when Mrs Appiah had to take into consideration the safety of her son. Kwame. aged seven (who is ill at the moment) and her daughters. Armah and Adwoa. Decided Te Stay Without hesitation. Mrs Appiah decided to stay in Ghana. “This is my home.” she explained simply. It was a wifely comment, and also a politically sagacious one. Mrs Appiah knows her continued presence in Ghana underlines the fact that her busband is still in gaol. An intelligent. gay and glowing woman, she has of course been brought up in an atmosphere of politics and international affairs. When her father was British Ambassador in Moscow, she ran the domestic side of the Embassy. She had a Government post in London during the latter part of the war and she met her hus-band-to-be at a reception in London where she was seeking information about Africa. Mr Appiah was a law student at the time. Life Unchanged The wedding caused some controversy. In the South African Parliament, the then Minister of Justice. Mr Charles Swart, held up the ■wedding photograph and called it “disgusting.” In fact, her marriage did not change the comfortable way of life that she had been used to. The Appiah home is at Kumasi. 200 miles upcountry in the “cocoa belt.” It is a solid, comfortable, well-planned house with modem plumbing, staffed by servants. There are roses in the garden.

On the ground floor her husband has his offices. On the first floor are the living quarters. Life there, until the present troubles, was on the whole amiable, unhurried and restful. English Christmas Mrs Appiah frequently wears the comfortable Ashanti dress and usually goes around the house barefoot She visits Accra, the capital, only occasionally, usually to go to an official party. Mrs Appiah is interested in African tradition and supports societies designed to do research into the traditional local culture. But, equally, she is sentimental about the English traditions she has left behind. This Christmas, for example, if all goes well, there will be roast turkey on the table and plum pudding to follow. Nearby there will be a little tree, trimmed with tinsel and lights. There will be carols and presents in stockings for the children. When the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were in Ghana recently, they made a special point of speaking to young Kwame Appiah in his bed at Kumasi General Hospital.