Rhodesia

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30914, 22 November 1965, Page 14

Rhodesia

Sir, —It has been alleged that oil companies are more powerful than governments. Their reaction to the suggested embargo on oil to Rhodesia will be watched with interest. Oil sanctions could have prevented or nt least stopped both the Abyssinian and Spanish civil wars.— Yours, etc., SETH NEWELL. November 19, 1965.

Sir, —A letter from a lady in Rhodesia: "... I don’t mind being a rebel, but should have liked to be asked first. Smith has never put the question in the form of a mandate or referendum. We . . . have always voted against the R.F. and would have voted against U.D.I. . . . but now it has happened are all prepared to face it. ... It is all rather Gilbert and Sullivan—we are so small. Smith has asked the Governor to leave but he refuses to quit Government House: and Hughie Beadle, the Chief Justice, and his wife are there with him. . . . We shan’t starve even if we are rationed. And Wilson won’t ‘break’ us in three months as he boasts. . . . Anyway, Banda, de Gaulle, Verwoerd, and Portugal are all on our side!” I do think the 8.8. C. might go a little easier about “treason” ■ and “the rebel State.” After all, Mr Smith has not bombed Suez or killed anyone yet.—Yours, etc., L.G.P. November 21, 1965.