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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 4. March 26 1968

Mrs Valintine writes

Mrs Valintine writes

Box 176, Umtali. Rhodesia. 27th October, 1967 The Chairman, Victoria University Student Body, Wellington. New Zealand.

Dear Chairman,

Friends in New Zealand sent me newspaper reports of an address given by Mr Garfield Todd to your students recently. It is because I think you should hear something of the other side of the picture that I am writing to you.

Mr. Todd is a very clever man and a polished speaker. He told newspaper reporters in Australia and New Zealand that he had to be careful what he said as he wanted to return to his ranch in Rhodesia. They loved it and it was flashed across the world. In the meantime he had said all he wanted to say and had made his point. It made things sound so much worse when there were things he would like to tell but daren't if he wanted to come back to this country. This is very sound psychology on his part. Your imagination immediately fills in the gaps for you and you try to think of all the terrible things he daren't tell you.

My psychology is all right too—the bad boy who will do anything to attract attention otherwise denied him.

Now let us take some of the points he made:

(1) That the infitrators were being welcomed with open arms by the local African population. This is not true. The local Africans report them to the police on every possible occasion. The fact that this country is completely peaceful bears this out. If the local population welcomed them we could not hope to maintain peace in this country. That is obvious as there are so many of them. As it is we are one of the most peaceful countries in the world today and any visitor will bear this out. Even my brother and his wife who have been receiving our letters have been amazed at the feeling of peace and vigorous endeavour and the working together amongst all sections of the community here. No doubt my brother would be prepared to bear this out on his return to N.Z. if you were interested.

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(2) That the local chiefs are paid by the government, are the servants of the government and do as they are told. This is very wide of the mark. They do receive a salary from the government as it is very necessary that they maintain a certain standard of living to retain the respect of their own people. There are not many ways in which they can obtain money. They are there to look after their people. They rule by African tribal law. The government endeavours to help them where ever possible but there is no interference with the authority of the chiefs. Our Department of Agriculture and our district commissioners and district officers and their staff are extremely able people and the help and assistance given to the Africans in the rural areas would require a book to do it justice.

(3) As regards his vituperation against Mr Smith and what he calls his "racialist policy"—It isn't Mr Smith who is a racialist but Mr Todd. Mr Smith is trying to govern the country for the benefit of all its people, no matter what the colour of their skins. The problems are many and they need a great deal of understanding. This can surely only be supplied by the people on the spot. Mr Todd on the other hand has set as his goal the driving out of the white people. It would appear that he wants to punish them for what they did to him. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"???