John Lentell

Gour

Friday’s Piece

Joe and Bert, returning from a reunion dinner, climbed on a bus and offered their fares to a fellow passenger.

“I’m not the conductor” came the reply. “I’m a naval officer.”

“Lumme,” said Bert, “we’re on a boat.”

John Lentell

December 8th, 1968

Lumme:

An interjection, being a contraction of ‘(Lord) love me’. Used to express surprise or dismay in circumstances where ‘bloody hell’ or ‘holy fuck’ might not be appropriate.

Gour

Tuesday’s Piece

“YOUNG HEART”

Nobody understands

Nobody understands

What goes on inside me

I don’t understand

What goes on inside me.

.

I think a lot

I feel a lot

But I can’t explain

What goes on inside me.

.

Sometimes my heart aches

My eyes get damp

And I just seem to have in

Me all the problems

And all the answers.

.

I have not been very far

I have not done very much

I do not know many people

And nobody really knows me.

.

I want to know

And I want to tell

What goes on inside me.

.

John Lentell

December 5th, 1968

Gour

Sunday’s Piece

Among us we have men who love Rhodesia and who, in this time of crisis and conflict, commit to her all they possess, but as common-sense or conscience dictates (and free entirely from questionable allegiance) dare to criticise the Government of the day.

We also have among us men who assert a love for their country who say they support the government (and never criticise it) but possess substantial external assets. Tangible evidence of their good faith!

I know which irritates me the most!

John Lentell

December 3rd, 1968

Gour

Friday’s Piece

All evidence points clearly to the fact that we are not by present means coming to grips with Rhodesia’s root problems. This can be contradicted ’til those responsible are blue (or purple?) in the face and I will not believe them. And, lest I be misunderstood, I do not know of a group of men with a proposition sufficiently noble or practical in concept. Rhodesia is at root both a noble and a practical concept and I, for one, owe most of what I am and have to her.

John Lentell

December 1st, 1968

Gour

Tuesday’s Piece

Hugger-mugger persists. It has become part and parcel of our way of life and yet is so very un-Rhodesian.

John Lentell

November 21st, 1968

Hugger-mugger:

Noun – Secrecy; the practice, or policy of keeping secrets.
Adjective – Operating in a way so as to ensure concealment, e.g. as cloak-and-dagger.
Adverb – By stealth; under cover.

Gour

Sunday’s Piece

I contemplate the fact that my appetite for fiction grows less and less. Books, films, radio, television, religion, people, politics; I have little stomach these days for fiction or fantasy.

Is it my age and station or the state of the Nation?

John Lentell

November 19th, 1968

Gour

Wednesday’s Piece

Sometime these ‘Pieces’ are, for one reason or another, rejected and do not appear for your amusement, benefit or discomfort! One day, perhaps, I shall publish them in a little booklet entitled “UNPUBLISHED PIECES” – or something like that!

John Lentell

November 15th, 1968

Gour

Tuesday’s Piece (original)

A sense of humour is slowly returning to the Rhodesian scene so may I be permitted to relate the following true story:

Driving one afternoon last year along Salisbury’s Sir James McDonald Avenue I found myself uncontrollably and most inappropriately (perhaps excusably?) laughing, alone and aloud, for I was behind a car with a sticker – “You are behind me, I am behind Ian Smith, let us go forward together” – In front of the car in front of was a loaded hearse on its way to the Pioneer Cemetery!

John Lentell

November 14th, 1968

(Submitted to the Rhodesia Herald but not printed due to censorship)

Gour

Tuesday’s P.S.

A ‘gremlin’ got in to Monday’s ‘long-winded’ Piece and distorted the whole meaning and purpose of it. In the fifth sentence the word “respect” wrongly displaced the word “reject” – i.e. it would have read:-

“We believe that to be well governed is not as important as to be self-governed. Hence, we reject all manner of millenniums proffered to us at the spearpoint of dictatorship.”

…………………………etc. etc. (Rabbi Abbe Hillel Silver).

Some gremlin! Sorry.

John Lentell

November 14th, 1968

Gour

Tuesday’s Piece

Whew! It’s all very confusing!

Firstly, the RNAA is “hounded from pillar to post” because certain Salisbury buildings are not permitted to hold the numbers who sometimes turn up for their meetings and Tuesday’s ‘front page’ we see at least 30 people (inc. a woman and children!) perched on the roof of a Government building presumably not authorised to hold anything or anybody at all?

Secondly – the Emergency Regulations recently fully debated in the House, and republished in full, state, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that the names of Restrictees must not be published and last week the names of two prominent persons in Restriction were coming at us from all directions!

I suppose the answer is that all things done in the heat of the moment or by popular consent are excusable?

John Lentell

November 14th 1968

Notes:

1. The RNAA (Rhodesia National Affairs Association) was formed in 1946 by Hardwicke Holderness and a few other like-minded Rhodesians back from the war “to hold weekly lectures and monthly debates leading up to the formation of long-term principles of policy for Rhodesia”. It set out to be non-party and, looking back, it represented the high-water mark of political thinking in the country’s history. One lecture, by Gideon Mhlanga, was the first occasion that white Rhodesians – and there were 400 of them in the audience – listened attentively to a black fellow-countryman.

2. Restrictees refers to African nationalist political leaders and activists detained in post UDI Rhodesia.