Various shades of opinion are thinking, as I am, that Ian Smith, for one reason or another, wants a Yes vote for the Republic question but a No vote for the Constitutional Proposals. This is the attitude, though possibly for different reasons, of the Conservative Association. I am reluctant to credit the Prime Minister and his colleagues with the intelligence or ability to ‘master mind’ such a dangerously delicate operation but the Proposals themselves are fickle and remote from Rhodesian concepts. As regards the awful consequences of acceptance – it is the ‘man in the street’ who will suffer – black and white – it is always that way. We must stop and think again.

John Lentell

16th June, 1969