479. Telegram From the Embassy in the United Kingdom to the Department of State1
1569. Private Secretary of Prime Minister Ian Smith has just delivered the following letter to me:
“Dear Charge d’Affaires,
“You were good enough to call upon me yesterday to deliver a message from your government relative to the Rhodesian government and the British government over the grant of independence to Rhodesia. In receiving the messages I informed you that I was grateful to your government [Page 821] for their interest and concern and I would now like you to convey this reply to your government in acknowledgement thereof.
“Would you please say to your government that the Rhodesian government are approaching these negotiations in a spirit of goodwill and conciliation but, at the same time, with the knowledge that what they are proposing to the British government as a settlement of the problem of Rhodesian independence is one that has the acceptance and support of the majority of the people in the country, both European and African.
“Rhodesia is working for independence on its 1961 Constitution, a constitution, freely negotiated between the then British government, the government of Rhodesia and representatives of all political parties and of all racial groups in the country. This constitution contains the fundamental elements which provide for a widely representative government when the time comes. But it is the claim of the Rhodesian government that it is for them to decide the pace of the evolution towards majority rule. Therefore, the government of Rhodesia, while they will take the very closest account of all the views expressed to them by friendly governments like the government of the United States, must in the end consider the ultimate good of the country of Rhodesia and must assume the final responsibility for deciding what course is in the best interests of that country.
“The Rhodesian government would be failing in their duty not only to themselves but to the ordinary people of the country and to the cause of Western civilisation on the continent of Africa if they were persuaded to abandon the stand they have taken and to expose the people of the county to all the unhappiness and conflict which stems from unbridled racial government, which would be the result of immediate majority rule. Yours sincerely, I. Vaughn Smith.”
Thompson told me that Harper and Wrathall were returning to Salisbury tonight but that Smith would probably not be leaving until Monday or Tuesday.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 19 RHOD. Confidential; Immediate. Repeated to USUN and Salisbury. Passed to the White House.↩