In my recently published book, the British Empire; A Force For Good, the section on Rhodesia is confined to 21 pages since the book had to cover all the other colonies and possessions that Britain once had on every continent and in every ocean. I had some rather sharp things to say about the trickery and deceit of various British government ministers – mainly Conservatives – towards Rhodesia between 1965 and 1980 but did not have the space to include some new and interesting material that my research uncovered. It is for this reason that I now give an expose of the true characters of Lord Carrington and Lord Soames – two of the three destroyers of Rhodesia, Margaret Thatcher being the third.
We shall start with Carrington, a hereditary peer who was described by the U.S. Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, as “that duplicitous bastard” and by Ian Smith as “the most two-faced of them all”. When, according to a participant at the Lancaster House conference on Rhodesia, General Walls was offered certain undertakings by Carrington in the form of an unwritten “gentlemen’s agreement”, he turned them down immediately on the grounds that Carrington was not a gentleman and therefore any verbal undertakings that he might give could not be trusted.
During his political career Carrington demonstrated his cowardly nature by the way that he allowed himself to be intimidated by Mugabe and other thugs during and after the Lancaster House conference of 1979 – in particular his failure to uphold the agreement (Annex D, clauses 11, 25 and 36) which required that those parties that intimidated voters would be banned from contesting the election.
The other parties adhered to this to the best of their ability but not Mugabe’s ZANU (PF) which intimidated voters on a massive and organised scale, especially in Mashonaland East, Manicaland and Victoria. Canvassers for other parties were killed by Mugabe’s organised thugs and some of these victims were buried alive. Prior to voting ZANU (PF) terrorists moved in to native compounds on farms and let the farm workers know in no uncertain terms what would be the consequences if voting in their particular area did not show a big win for Mugabe.
There were more than a thousand affidavits attesting to these many acts of violence and intimidation from responsible people, some of them from official British “observers” (election monitors and policemen). Instead of banning ZANU (PF) as required to do by the Lancaster House agreement Carrington and his sidekick in Rhodesia, Lord Soames, looked the other way.
Two years later this Foreign Secretary’s neglect in respect of Argentina’s barely concealed intentions in respect of the British colony of the Falkland Islands more or less gave the green light to the dictatorship in Buenos Aires to launch their full scale invasion which resulted in the deaths of 258 British soldiers and 649 Argentinians.
In disgrace Carrington resigned in a hurry, leaving the Foreign Office in crisis and an enemy flag flying over British territory for the first time since 1945. He did not even have the courage to take sole responsibility for the mess; instead he took with him into resignation the junior minister at the Foreign Office, Richard Luce, a man superior to Carrington in both character and ability.
Carrington’s cowardice and deceit while he was Foreign Secretary showed that he was a most persuasive liar whose word could not be trusted – as stated by Alexander Haig, Ian Smith and others who had dealings with him.
Carrington was first accused of cowardice during the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 when, as a 25 year old junior officer in the Grenadier Guards, he refused to advance with his tanks to Arnhem, where they were desperately needed to help relieve the British and American soldiers trapped there. Instead he halted them at the northern end of the Nijmegen Bridge over the Waal River and then bunkered down for the night of 20th September, 1944, like a frightened rabbit.
There were American paratroopers north of the bridge and they expected the British tanks to advance the eleven miles to Arnhem before dark. Knowing how important this was, one of the American officers, Captain T. Moffatt Burriss, approached Carrington who said that he would not order the advance because he did not have the orders to do so. This was almost certainly another of his lies as his superior, General Horrocks, had told the Americans, “My tanks [including Carrington’s] will be lined up in full force at the bridge, ready to go, hell bent for Arnhem. Nothing will stop them.”
“OK, I’m going to give you an order”, said Burriss, an officer of equal rank but in a different army. Carrington refused. “You yellow son-of-a-bitch”, said Burriss.
Then, during the late afternoon, a more senior American officer, Major Cook, moved in and asked Carrington to give the order to advance. Another refusal. In desperation the Americans then got Colonel Tucker and eventually General Gavin to request the advance of the tanks but Carrington replied that he didn’t want to advance at night. There were British soldiers besieged at Arnhem and General Gavin said, “If they were my men in Arnhem, we would move tanks at night, we would move anything at night to get there”, but Carrington just closed the hatch of his tank and bunkered down for the night. He could have signalled for further orders but failed to do so.
In an article dated 29th August, 2019, in Key Military a certain David Truesdale tried to make the case for Carrington. However, because he gave a false description of Carrington’s character – “one of the most distinguished statesmen of the post-war period” and “much admired for his statesman-like qualities, personal honour and integrity”, Truesdale’s reputation for veracity is suspect to say the least. In trying to grease up to his “hero” he even went to the unbelievable extreme of saying of Carrington “the Lord wrote….” Please note the capital “L”, which is usually reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ. Such wordage might have passed in the eighteenth century but to write in such terms in the 21st century brings the content of the whole of Truesdale’s article into question, if not ridicule. So much for Carrington but what about Lord Soames?
Christopher Soames, the son of a rich brewer, served in the elite Coldstream Guards during the Second World War. He is recorded as having received a minor award for bravery but, during the six years of World War Two, these were given out to Guards officers more or less as a matter of routine – rather like in the late nineteenth century when almost every general in the British Army had a Victoria Cross which at that time seems to have been awarded more for seniority than for bravery.
Within his regiment Soames had a nick-name, which was “Daffodil”. And we all know what colour a daffodil is. The reason why others in the regiment referred to him as Daffodil was because, whenever there was any fighting to be done, Soames always found a reason to be on an errand way behind the lines or else to feign sickness. Not surprisingly, the others in the regiment – both officers and men – noticed this and resented the fact that, while they were risking their lives in the fighting line, there was one manipulative and malingering coward who wasn’t.
Always on the lookout for the Main Chance (and for a drink), Soames found it at the end of the War when he met Churchill’s youngest daughter, Mary, and married her. He then traded on his father-in-law’s name to worm his way into Parliament, becoming the Conservative M.P. for Bedford. He let it be known to those who mattered in the Conservative Party that he had Churchill’s ear and this resulted in promotion up through the ministerial ranks.
In Harold MacMillan’s government he was made Minister for War, which made him the Minister for the Army. On his first day in this position and with the hide of a rhinoceros he rang the commanding officer of the Coldstream Guards and said, “It is such an honour for an ex-member of the Coldstreams to be made the Minister for War that I would like to celebrate the occasion by coming and having lunch with the officers in the Mess.” The C.O. had to say “yes”.
For a London based regiment lunch is the big event of the day for the officers who can gather for a hot lunch and discuss regimental matters with their fellows. Evenings are not so well attended since the officers go home to their wives and families or else, being London, attend other social events outside the regiment.
Normally there would be at least twenty officers at lunch but on this occasion of Soames’ visit there were only two: the Commanding Officer and the Adjutant. Both had to turn up by virtue of their positions. All the other officers, who had a choice, stayed away and so Daffodil had to eat a quick lunch at the big table with only two others. He never went near the Coldstream Guards ever again. Instead, Margaret Thatcher inflicted him on to Rhodesia as its Governor where he exercised his trademark cunning and cowardice to play his part in destroying the most wonderful country that Africa has ever known.
As a result of their experiences in the Bush War Rhodesians know only too well how important it is for every man in a fighting unit to do his duty since cowards can cause the deaths of their fellow troops. That is why it was so despicable that two such cowardly and deceitful men were allowed to destroy Rhodesia in the way that they did. Margaret Thatcher had a lot to answer for – not just in respect of Rhodesia but of Hong Kong as well. She was the only Prime Minister to have handed two prosperous and happy colonies over to the communists – Rhodesia by means of a rigged election and Hong Kong by no election or referendum at all. Just her constant lie that the British had to hand over all of Hong Kong to China whereas in fact it had to hand over only the back-country New Territories, which were on a 99 year lease, and not Hong Kong Island or Kowloon which were the heart and soul of Hong Kong and could have been retained, which is what the vast majority of the people wanted. As I wrote in my book, Margaret Thatcher might have been the Iron Lady in Britain but out in the Empire she was the Double Traitor.