Alternative

The alternative to Mr. Smith's government in Rhodesia is pictured in the newspapers as a state of idyllic euphoria for all—black and white living in harmony together.

The only trouble with this picture is that part of it obtains today in Rhodesia—black and white do live in harmony. Events in Rhodesia bear little resemblance to those in the African states at present calling for "justice".

18,000 Arabs were massacred in Zanzibar and Pemba.

Two Prime Ministers and thousands of Ibos were slaughtered in Nigeria—the body of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, P.C. etc, being found with the eyes gouged out.

On May 30, 1966. four of President Mobutu's Ministers were arrested. They were tried the next day, and hanged in public, before a large crowd, the day after. There was no question of any appeal to a higher court: these four were merely added to the 1y million estimated killed in the Congo since independence.

In 1960, after an attempted coup, the former commander of the Imperial Guard was publicly hanged in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia.

On the Ivory Coast, 13 people were executed for suspected complicity in an attempted coup in 1963.

Six hundred and fifty Africans in Zambia, followers of a religious sect led by Alice Lenshina, were machine-gunned. They did not want to take part in politics, and especially they did not want to vote for Dr. Kenneth Kaunda—President of Zambia. Six hundred and fifty unwilling electors will not be voting in the Chinsali district in future.

These frightful examples of "Africanisation" will not happen in Rhodesia. They are some of the reasons why Mr. Smith and his government remain in power, and why Rhodesians, black and white alike, can be grateful that five murderers have been hanged.