Prelude to Independence - Skeen;'s 115 Days

Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth: Nasionale Boekhandel, 1966 INSIDE FRONT FLAP: "In a logical world, it should be hard to explain why Mr Ian Smith, who took over a country where he was already legally governing without a shot, without a murder, a trial or even a coup, is a wicked, lawless villain unfit to be negotiated with by decent men, whereas those who seize control of their country by force and shoot, arrest or exile the existing rulers, and then establish a military dictatorship, are immediately recog nised as the praiseworthy heads of a respectable legal movement." Those words were written by the well-known authoress Mrs Elsbeth Huxley in the National Review of Washington. Honest men and women throughout the civilized world are as puzzled as she is. Why is Rhodesia being treated like a headstrong adolescent? Was she not ripe for independence? Had she been unwilling to negotiate terms and to give guarantees? Brigadier Andrew Skeen is in a unique position to supply the answers to these questions. He was High Commissioner for Southern Rhodesia in London from July 1965 until that day in November when he was informed that he was "no longer acceptable to the British Government as High Commissioner." Along with many personal sidelights he gives the inside story of the protracted struggle between a young country claiming the right to sever the parental apronstrings, and a mother country unwilling to accept the justice of that claim. It is the story of Rhodesia's fight for independence; it may also be the story of Britain's biggest blunder. ----------------------------------------- 291 pages ---------- Orders of $100.00 or more are shipped using tracked courier delivery services. Size: Approx 5½ " Wide and 8½ " Tall