“I believe in an ultimate decency of things.”
(Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850 – 1894)
John Lentell
28th February, 1969
Friday’s Piece
Reckoning – not rumour – suggests to me a development, soon, other than a ‘six of one – half a dozen of the other’ referendum. Further talks with Britain? A snap election precipitated by division in the RF? Or both?
Why else, when we are politically and constitutionally at sixes and sevens, are the good men (even in their private capacities) doing nothing? Why has no one from cabinet or Caucus stepped forward and joined the Conservative Association? The facts – as so far revealed – simply do not add up.
John Lentell
27th February, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
The hugger-muggering goes on. We are becoming a nation of gobemouches and that is, ironically, a characteristic more British than Rhodesian!
John Lentell
26th February, 1969
Wednesday’s Piece
Why are people in Highlands playing Bingo with their house numbers? Don’t you need a licence for that? Where does all the money go?
John Lentell
25th February, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
“Change is inevitable. In a progressive country change is constant.”
(Benjamin Disraeli, 1804 – 1881)
John Lentell
24th February, 1969
Monday’s Piece
What we would like individually to see no longer matters. We desperately need a plan to restore confidence, a plan to stop the outflow of ‘brains, brawn and brass’ (not adequately compensated by the inflow!).
John Lentell
23rd February, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
“There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
(William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616)
John Lentell
22nd February, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
These are the days of challenge and opportunity for men patent of goodwill, men of calibre, men of courage and patient fortitude. There is challenge and opportunity in abundance for such men to come forward and truly build a nation wherein all men can dwell and know freedom and happiness without parallel on this continent. We have all had a bellyful of extremism and we ought to be spewing it from our mouths.
John Lentell
21st February, 1969
Friday’s Piece
That this is a time of trouble and trial no sane person can deny; but it is at this very point when men reach the end of their tether that they might find in common a hunger to build anew?
John Lentell
20th February, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
“…..Therefore ’tis meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduc’d?”
(William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616)
John Lentell
19th February, 1969)
Wednesday’s Piece
“When she inveighed eloquently against the evils of capitalism at drawing-room meetings and Fabian conferences she was concious of a comfortable feeling that the system with all its inequalities and iniquities, would probably last her time. It is one of the consolations of middle-aged reformers that the good they inculcate must live after them if it is to live at all.”
(Saki – Hector Hugh Munro, 1870 – 1916)
John Lentell
18th February, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
“So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths, that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.”
(Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850 – 1919)
John Lentell
17th February, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“The Noble heart, that harbours virtuous thought,
And is with Child of glorious great intent,
Can never rest, until it forth have brought
Th’ eternal Brood of Glory excellent.”
(Edmund Spenser, 1552 – 1599)
John Lentell
16th February, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
If among us at this time of crisis, conflict and challenge we have men with noble hearts and virtuous thoughts they are not conspicuous nor, apparently, in the vanguard. If there are such men and if they truly desire to serve, or even to be great, they will never again in Rhodesia see opportunity such as this. From my humble standpoint I beg of someone to take the lead.
John Lentell
15th February, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
I live in Highlands and I don’t want to be ‘incorporated’ but I suppose I shall wake up one Friday morning and find that I have been!
John Lentell
14th February, 1969
Friday’s Piece
“In 1931, the country was up to the eyes in hell-broth. The complete complete collapse of a vast eddifice of sham, pretence, humbug and hypocrisy could no longer be concealed even from a people who, through thirteen years of ‘peace’, had shown little disposition to wake up to the facts of life. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald’s government ‘went to the country’, taking Mr. Baldwin and Sir John Simon along in hand-in-hand. They made their celebrated demand for a ‘doctor’s mandate’, which was, at long last, a rceognition that the patient was in a very bad way. The patient, shaken to the soul, placed himself in their hands with a lack of reservation rarely witnessed in English political history. The doctor’s bill came in 1939….”
(‘In the Meantime’ – Howard Spring, 1889 – 1965)
Now why did I choose this quote?
John Lentell
13th February, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
I am without a political leader and I think this is true of a large number of the electorate – decent Rhodesians who are sick and tired of the hugger-muggering. This is not Zambia. Nor is it South Africa. We could be the Switzerland of Africa – a peaceful nation of skills, hard work and hard currency (a venue for International peace conference!). But I see little hope of this under our existing leadership and, sadly, no convincing alternative has as yet been proffered.
John Lentell
12th February, 1969
Wednesday’s Piece
(This piece was rejected by Rhodesia Herald editors / censors and not published)
Sophisticated mercenaries! Some were here before UDI, many have come since – detained or drawn by the spoils to be had. Unscrupulous and without any sense of patriotism. In effect – subversive! They couldn’t care a b….r about Rhodesia – that’s beyond doubt. All of which I am frequently told is just human nature and that in Rhodesia it is no worse and no better than elsewhere. What a pity. We used to be different, we used to be better – that was our strength.
John Lentell
11th February, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
If our Independence cannot be maintained with honour, it is no longer Independence.
John Lentell
9th February, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most – feels the noblest – acts the best.”
(Philip James Bailey, 1816 – 1902)
John Lentell
8th February, 1969
Lentell Soup 