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Zimbabwe – or was it Rhodesia? |
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Inside the Cabinet
"I was in a minority among senior staff in External Affairs in believing strongly that Rhodesia had earned the right to have the same status as the newly independent Zambia [the former territory of Northern Rhodesia] and Malawi [formerly the British protectorate of Nyasaland]. 
Brian Oliver overseeing Colonel Everard swearing-in as the Acting Officer Administering the Government 1971
© Brian Oliver |
"I also felt Rhodesia should proceed along the path of gradually bringing along Africans into more and more political and administrative participation at European standards.
"I was transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department and appointed Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet, which was an amazing job. I found myself in the centre of the whole economic and security network, as Secretary to several Cabinet committees and occasionally the Cabinet itself. Ian Smith was a fine chairman who believed in brevity, keeping his Ministers to the point and dealing with business efficiently and expeditiously. Indeed, they were all in awe of him.
"He had an uncanny political nose for what was important and what was not, and was firmly in control of his Cabinet’s affairs. He always referred to Ministers by their surnames; no first name reference was ever made in formal Cabinet procedures - as they are in the British Government of today."
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