A Career of Defiance The Life of Ian Smith William C. Pollard, = Jr. ¥ ¥ ' " vl A CAREER OF DEFIANCE: THE LIFE OF IAN SMITH . . ua by William C. Pollard, Jr. a a copyright 1992 by William C. Pollard, Jr. printed by Agusan River Publishing Co. Topeka, Kansas " 2 . 2 " E This book is dedicated to the people of Zimbabwe; may they remain Ef free and may their economic and political future be bright. H R E E E E E E B E E E E E R E E R E e R E R E e R m E B R TERRY MCADAM (Bureau of Disease Control) is the illustrator of a book A Career of Defiance - The Life of Ian Smith by journalist, William Pollard, Jr. The book is a chronicle of the Rhodesia/Zimbabwe government under the reign of Prime Minister Ian Smith. The book is the result of 14 years of research by William Pollard, Jr. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ----rr -rrr- rr-r rr-r r-rr i Chapter 1: Smith's Childhood and Early Years - - - - - = - 1 Chapter 2: Smith's Rise to Political Prominence - - --- 8 Chapter 3: Smith in the Cabinet - ------7------- 16 Chapter 4: Glimpses of the Prime Minister - ------- 19 Chapter 5: Building Up for a UDI - -----+-e"*-+----e-- 26 Chapter 6: Minority Rule SucceedS - - - -----+-+--- 41 Chapter 7: Rhodesia Finds Itself in Trouble - - - - - - - 60 Maps and Sketches - - - ------7f7 r72f7 7r7777r77 79A Chapter 8: A Transition for Rhodesia - --------+-- 80 Chapter 9: The First Black Government - - - ------- 91 Chapter 10: Four Months of British Rule - ----+-+--- 97 Chapter 11: White Politics in Black Zimbabwe - - - - - - - 102 Chapter 12: The Loss of All White Political Power - - - - 120 Definitions and Abbreviations of Terms - - - ------- 129 Footnotes - -----s- 7, et- 7,7 ef er errr err rrr rrr 133 s PREFACE “ 4 a My purpose for writing this book was to provide as objective an account as possible of the life of Ian Douglas Smith, the former prime minister of what was known as Rhodesia and is now known as Zimbabwe. It is hoped that this book has done justice to the subject. Unfortunately, I was unable to travel to Zimbabwe to explore the public documents in Harare and the local newspapers there and in other localities. Therefore, I have missed out on some information that would have helped make this book better. .ixSmith, Ian Douglas However, I hope this book has not suffered for lack of information. I made a thorough examination of information in this country. While I was forced to rely heavily on information in the news media, I was able to locate information through other sources. A number of books and reference materials were available, as were professional publications on African affairs. Also, I got some information from what was known as the Rhodesian Information Office in Washington, D.C.; its name later changed to the Zimbabwe Rhodesian Information Office. Also, I wrote a number of individuals involved in the politics of Rhodesia. Those who responded to my letters include Sir Roy Welensky and former U. S. Senator S. I. Hayakawa. Another person deserving thanks because of his encouragement is Lee F. Young, who in 1989 retired from teaching at of the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas. Finally, I wish to thank all those whose names I never knew who worked at Watson Library at the University of Kansas. Without their help I would never have located some of my sources. I realize this book has limitations because I was unable to travel to Zimbabwe and thus use all the materials there. However, I am confident that this rendition has done justice to an important subject in both southern African and world history. William Cc. Pollard, Jr. The Author CHAPTER 1 SMITH'S CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS In 1898 John Douglas Smith decided to leave his native Scotland and try his luck in Southern Rhodesia. John, eighteen at the time, came from a large family from Hamilton in Lanarkshire. His family apparently was fairly well to do, owning two or three butcher shops and a cattle farm, although John's father died while he was very young. It is hard to imagine exactly what John expected to find in Rhodesia, although he surely knew something of what the territory was like. His older brother had been one of the first pioneers to colonize the area in 1890, the colonists being under the pay and direction of Cecil John Rhodes, the prime minister of South Africa's Cape Colony. The older brother, however, did not fare well, being drowned one night while trying to cross the Zambezi River on horseback, at a point near Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia. John Smith, who came to be well known by the nickname "Jock," settled in the small mining camp of Selukwe. Another of Jock's brothers then came to Rhodesia, but decided to return to Scotland, from where he then left for the United States; he settled there for life. Jock Smith mined gold in Selukwe, but the occupation provided him little financial reward. He then branched out into four other enterprises: farming, butchery, the bakery business, and the garage business. Jock quickly prospered and began spending time with a hobby he greatly enjoyed, the breeding and grooming of horses. Jock Smith's horses won at least a few prizes, including the Coronation Derby of 1911, in Salisbury; Smith rode his, own horse in that derby and it was not unusual for him to do so. Agnes Hodgson arrived in Selukwe in January 1907. Her father had left his wife and family of four children in Cumberland and fought for the British in the Boer War. After the War's end in 1902, he settled in Selukwe and became a gold miner. After spending a few years in the industry, his family joined him. Considering that Selukwe in those days was never larger than 900 people--and is about the same in population today--Jock Smith and Agnes Hodgson probably knew each other as early as 1907. At any rate, in 1911 they were married. Jock continued working hard at his enterprises and he and Agnes both became active in the civic affairs of the community. The couple also raised a family of two girls and a boy. The girls, Phyllis and Joan, were born firgt. Then on April 8, 1919, the boy, Ian Douglas Smith, was born. F The Southern Rhodesia in which Ian Smith was born and grew up Was a much different place than was the Rhodesia he declared independent in 1965. In 1919 both Rhodesias were still governed under a charter granted to Cecil Rhodes by Great Britain; Britain had some responsibilities under this charter, but Rhodes's British South Africa Company held the reins of power. The white settlers were growing unhappy with the company's rule by this time and in 1923 voted to establish a self-governing colony, in which they held a great deal of power in internal affairs, while allowing Britain the right to govern the areas occupied by blacks and the responsibility to provide military protection. fThe British neglected to perform their duties of governing the black areas and the settler government gradually stepped into this area; this situation would become a bone of controversy many years later, when the settlers negotiated for independence. The population was also small as compared to today. The 1925 edition of The World Almanac and Book of Facts provided an official estimate from 1921 for Southern Rhodesia. The whites were 33,500 strong and the native population was estimated at 770,000 people. The white population was 4% of the total, a percentage that has decreased only in the last ten to twelve years. The World Almanac estimated the population of Northern Rhodesia for 1920 as comprised of 3,500 Europeans and 928,000 Africans. The colonial government was structured like those in much of Europe. There was a Parliament and a prime minister. The party taking the majority of the seats in the Parliamentary elections chose the prime minister, who remained in office until the next scheduled election or until Parliament defeated a major government bill and the prime minister was forced to resign or call new elections. Very few blacks had the right to vote and none were elected to Parliament under this constitution, which remained in effect until 1961. Although until after World War II blacks comprised about 95% of the population--and whites, Asians, and colored (those of mixed race) were the other five percent--few blacks pressed for civil or political rights. While blacks probably were very unhappy with receiving a very limited franchise, very limited occupational and educational opportunities, and substandard housing, they rarely felt much could be done to improve their lot. Smith's home community was very small. In his youth it was first a mining camp and later a town. Conditions there were somewhat primitive. There was no electricity. The town had only one store and a town hall, built of plaster and lathe, where the town's social activities, such as dances and tea parties and meetings of various charitable and social clubs, took place. Other social events were the various athletic activities, such as soccer. The young Ian Smith was fascinated by sports. The town's inhabitants made the town cosmopolitan in terms of 3 ethnic and racial groups. Of course, most of the inhabitants were black. The rest were a mixture of European groups, of which the British were probably the most numerous. The town also contained a number of Greeks and Jews, as well as other Europeans. The social conditions of Selukwe and Southern Rhodesia as a whole undoubtedly had a great deal of influence on the development of Smith's personality. Another source of influence on the boy was his father. Smith always thought highly of his father and much later in life remarked that his father encouraged his involvement in sports while he was a pupil at the primary school in Selukwe: "I spent a little too much time on sport, and I could have spent a little more time at my studies. Of course my father being very keen on sport encouraged me, perhaps to the detriment of my studies in those days." Early in life Smith began competing and winning at sports. After graduating from the Selukwe School, Smith went on to Chaplin School, the secondary school in Gwelo. At both schools, Smith performed with excellence on the sports field and was, academically, an average student. At Chaplin, Smith took part in a number of sports, including rugby, tennis, and cricket. He excelled in mathematics and arithmetic and his grades were fair in most other subjects. In Latin, French, and Greek, however, Smith earned poor marks. It might be added that both at home and at school Smith was well behaved, rarely getting into trouble. After graduating from Chaplin School, Smith left home to attend Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, South Africa. Grahamstown, about twenty miles (32 km) north of the coast in the Cape Province, had about 15,000 inhabitants when Smith was there. Smith found the demands of college life required him to do more schoolwork and drop some of his sports activities, but apparently he was not disturbed by this, realizing that school was more important than sports. Smith was socially active at Rhodes. He made many friends and was a member of a number of councils and was elected headman of his house. He was also chairman of the Students' Representative Council and he was a leader among those wanting better quality food at the houses. Smith spent three years at Rhodes, but World War II interrupted his studies. On September 1, 1939, Germany sparked a world war by sending armies into Poland. Immediately Great Britain and France declared war on Germany and immediately the Soviet Union entered the war to seize a share of Poland. In September 1941 Smith left school to join the Southern Rhodesia Air Force. He was sent to the Royal Air Force and was trained in Southern Rhodesia in fighter aircraft. In 1942, his training completed, Smith was assigned to the 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron in Iran as a fighter pilot. While in Iran Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister Sir Godfrey Huggins decided to visit Fa h Smith's squadron and Smith got the honor of flying one of the four fighters that escorted Huggins's airplane. l h Smith was then transferred to the north African sector of the war and, as a flight-lieutentant, he flew a Hurricane on missions l over enemy terrain. Smith years later claimed that he first r thought seriously about politics while in north Africa. He and fellow Rhodesian pilots spent a lot of time talking about politics, because there was little to do in the desert but talk. l O On October 4, 1943, Smith suffered injuries in an accident that could easily have taken his life. Early in the morning darkness he was taking off from an airstrip to go on a mission, when he failed to get his plane high enough to clear a sandbag l defense wall. The plane's undercarriage snagged on the sandbags l and Smith lost control of the plane. His plane was destroyed, parts being scattered over 400 meters (1300 feet or one-fourth mile). Smith's harness, designed to take one ton of stress, snapped, throwing him into the instrument panel. He suffered injuries to his face, back, head, and one leg. His face was so badly injured that one of his rescuers remarked, "He'll be cold meat in a few minutes." i However, extensive plastic surgery and six months of — recuperation enabled Smith to return to action. Throughout his life, though, Smith suffered sporadic trouble with the discs in his back. As the Allied forces captured the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily and pushed into Italy, it became desirable a to move airstrips into these areas so as to inflict the maximum amount of damage to the Axis forces as possible. Smith's squadron as a result was stationed on Corsica and Smith flew his Spitfire on numerous raids on enemy positions in northern Italy. e o In June 1944 Smith left his base for a raid on the Po Valley, in northeast Italy, but did not return. He was strafing German ground forces when his plane was hit by flak. Smith coaxed his plane to stay in the air as long as he could, but he finally had l to parachute out in the Ligurian Alps, north of Genoa. No one in Smith's outfit knew what happened to him, so he was officially l listed as missing in action. He was to remain missing for five months, when he and three other servicemen suddenly turned up in southern France. After Smith bailed out of his crippled Spitfire, he had to hide from a German patrol operating in the area. After the e Germans left Smith spotted a small boy herding sheep and he e approached the boy and talked to him. The boy's family hid Smith in a cave for a few days and the mother brought him food. Smith e then met a well-to-do family who were sheltering a British Army e captain. After this he met a group of Italian partisans who lived nearby, in a town named Moretti Piancenstani. Smith fought with the partisans and they put him in charge of e e