Confidence expressed about the future of Rhodesia

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34132, 20 April 1976, Page 6

Confidence expressed about the future of Rhodesia

City streets in Salisbury. Rhodesia, are far safer for a lone woman at night than in Christchurch, says Miss Philippa Muir.

Miss Muir, who has I lived in Rhodesia for the! last six months and is now -visiting hex - parents jin Leinster Road, says . she would not have secfond thoughts about ‘ walking home at night I from a city cinema in iSalisbury. But she would! certainly not do so in; 'Christchurch. “I have never heard of any m the kind of street violence in Salisbury that j happens here,” she said. Philippa Muir, a former secondary school teacher on the staff at Turakina Maori I Girls’ College at Marton, i will return soon to Rhodesia [to marry and settle there, ‘ She fell for the beauty of ' the country, with its great I variety of scenery, its pleas- ■ ant climate and the friendj liness of the people when on j a visit early last year. She ■ decided to stay there and I get a job. | Reports ’not true’ | Since her return to Christ- ! church she has been amazed jat the news reports which 1 forecast an early fall of j white rule in Rhodesia and a I' black African take-over. They were not true, she said. No. She had not been i influenced by the optimism of white Rhodesian friends. She formed her own opinions independently from the experience of living in Salisbury and personal observations — and she is prepared to stand by them. “There is a psychological war being waged against Rhodesia throughout the world,’ she said. “Black Africans 1 talked to (not Nationalist ‘stirrers’) as well as white Rhodesians are quite satisfied with life the I way it is. They are the most patriotic people you could meet anywhere and they I have great admiration fori

| the Prime Minister, Mr lan ( I Smith." | in Salisbury and many other parts of Rhodesia she visited she was quite unaware of any guerrilla activity. “There was no apparent danger at all.” she said. “But you do see camouflaged trucks taking troops and Supplies from Salisbury to border areas where we know I there is trouble." Yes. She had heard about terrorism and murders on i farms in border districts, I particularly those near Mozambique, but the people mainly affected were) Africans living in kraals, she: said. “These villagers are now being moved into protected areas by the Rhodesian army, which keeps a 24-hour guard round them.” Rhodesian Africans were! much happier than the blacks in South Africa, she said. “That was the first thing I noticed when I crossed the border. There is no apartheid in Rhodesia.” Since sanctions were imposed on Rhodesia, the countrv had become virtually self-supporting, she said. Some goods were often hard to get, such as black 1 pepper, chocolate. razor blades and transistor bat- ‘ teries. 1 Low cost.* Philippa Muir, aged 24, has travelled widely. The cost of living in Rhodesia was the lowest of any country she had visited, she said. Food, clothing and accommodation were certainly much cheaper there than in [New Zealand. She and Anne ; Mercer, also from Christchurch and now in London, both worked in a Salisbury record shop as saleswomen for $BO a month. Though this is a relatively , low salary by New Zealand i standards," they only paid $6O i • a month rent for a three-j ■ bedroomed, well-furnished |

house with a large garden and swimming pool. The shared rent and low cost of food (Irananas two for 1c) made for cheap living. Shoes, for which she paid S 9 a pair in Salisbury, would cost about s2o in Christchurch. she said. In a good restaurant, a fillet steak “with all the trimmings.” a dessert and coffee cost $1.50. Petrol, however, was about the same price as in New Zealand, she added. When pressed, Philippa admitted she had naturally considered the possibility of war in Rhodesia. But she knows that she could get out of the country if the need arose. (She put the emphasis on "if.”) Xo qualms In the meantime, she has no qualms about returning to Rhodesia. In June she will marry Mr Christopher Gamer, who is doing an honours degree in agricultural economics at the University of Rhodesia in Salisbury. “I am confident that Rhodesia will recover its stability and be a secure place in which to live and bring up a family,” said Philippa Muir.