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As Nigel Lawson was leaving the conference hall at the end of the Bank/Fund meeting he was buttonholed by Secretary Regan who had received an urgent command to take the Chancellor to a private meeting with President Reagan. When they arrived at the White House the head of the National Security Council, Frank Carlucci, was there to greet the Chancellor and rather dismissively to thank the Secretary of the Treasury for bringing him over. Regan, though used to being kept from the President by the palace guards, walked away somewhat dejected.
Inside the Oval Office President Reagan very graciously thanked Lawson for agreeing to see him alone, ignoring the four others in the room, including the ubiquitous photographer. Reagan was tired and filled with anxiety about the Africa crisis, which had divided his Cabinet more severely than usual. He made it quite obvious that he had been pushing Regan in the same hawkish direction that Lawson wanted to go and had been opposed by a more dovelike State Department which feared that he would lose strategically important African countries to the Communists if he bankrupted their governments.
Reagan, who was working with his staff on the speech he would give on television the following evening, was particularly anxious to get Lawson's reaction as a fellow politician. He was confident that the Western banking system would survive the shakeout that lay just ahead, and be healthier and more prudent in the future. But he feared that the inconveniences to the general public of the cutoffs in trade with Africa would be politically very awkward. "It's a brave man," President Reagan said, "who comes between the American voter and his cup of coffee."
He then turned the briefing over to Frank Carlucci, who maneuvered a brass knob on the desk to dim the lights while a map of Africa came up on a screen that appeared on one of the alcoves. "This is so much less trouble and more intimate than going down to the situation room," Reagan murmured. Illustrated by the best products of information technology, Carlucci then gave a 30-minute lecture outlining the US policy.
The area of active economic conflict would, hopefully, be confined to Africa. Asia seemed likely uninterested in Africa and this was acceptable as long as Japan did not play foul and try to take over a continent that it had no historical ties to. The American strategy was to cut off credit to the African countries and thus bring their modern-sector economies to a halt. Africa would deny tropical products and raw materials to the West; within six months this would begin to hurt the West. Reagan had therefore ruled that the credit pinch must be so complete as to achieve its objectives within six months--- despite any sentimental public outcry. The West would be particularly vulnerable after that time to any interruption of supplies of oil and scarce strategic metals. Reagan therefore ruled that the long-term stability and security of southern Africa as a major supplier of scarce metals was of overriding importance.
To prove that it was practical politics to achieve results in 6 months the screen showed charts of the rapidly increasing imports of food into Africa from the West; there followed some devastating enlargements of satellite pictures showing the spreading desertification of overcultivated land around African cities. There were no domestic reserves of productivity to draw on if supplies from outside ceased.
The immediate effect of the credit squeeze in Africa would be to destabilize existing regimes. The American aim would be to achieve "controlled destabilization" so that the formerly friendly governments would recognize the folly of Kalingba's resolution and would come back into the system in some manner suitable to their needs. The pressure on hostile communist-leaning regimes would be kept up until they became so unpopular that their people would rise and overthrow them. At that point, every effort would be made to ensure that new regimes were installed that returned to the system.
The region of immediate concern to the USA, the lecture went on relentlessly, was the Horn of Africa and Southern Africa. Here mob psychology and Kolingba's leadership had stampeded several friendly countries into the wrong camp; the United States would try to preserve these friendly governments and avoid the destabilization. The Central African Republic was a special case; Kolingba's government would have to be destabilized, but any move to the Soviet camp must be prevented---an interim military government would probably be needed to pave the way to democracy.
US ground troops would be discreetly concentrated in American bases, including Egypt. But the US Navy, already on full alert, would patrol the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Africa interdicting any supplies from Cuba and protecting American property and interests. It would also play its part in preventing illegal immigration into the US.
At this point, the exposition changed its tone. On the screen appeared a series of charts delineating the known Communist toeholds in Africa, specifically Angola and Mozambique. Frank Carlucci explained that the problems of those very countries were in complete contrast to those of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. "These countries are already a Cold War battleground as we and our allies deliver military assistance to our preferred clients; the ruling MPLA has long-established relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba and enjoys military assistance from that country. We blew it in Angola, just like we blew it in Vietnam, and that's raised the stakes of the superpower competition in Africa."
Reagan broke in, making it apparent that this was for him the critical point of the meeting. "It cannot be stressed enough that we are not engaging in a battle for hearts and minds. The Soviets, and we, are in a contest to deplete the other side of weapons and munitions, to maintain physical control of a country valued for its diamonds and oil. Soviet dominance by proxy of Angola would be catastrophic; it would give them power over parts of the Cape shipping route around the tip of Africa as well as the export of a whole range of minerals---uranium, copper, platinum, cobalt, and diamonds---from its next-door neighbors.
"This is where Great Britain comes in. The US has never had a base in that area; you did Simonstown, South Africa. Can we have an agreement? Can you use Simonstown as a major air base to patrol the Cape shipping route and the coasts of Angola and Mozambique?"
Lawson began to respond instinctively to respond instinctively as a long-standing Cabinet member: "I shall have to consult with the Cabinet, but...."
Before he could complete his sentence of warm personal support for the idea, Reagan broke in again: "Look, we've been having very urgent discussions in the past two days with Constand Viljoen, the South African Defense Minister, who happens to be in Washington on a regular visit, about the security of the supply of their scarce metals. You know how crucial those metals are to all of us. He told me that Black Africa would be in chaos in a month as it found itself cut off from the West, and there would certainly be threats to the security of the Republic. Finally, he came clean: could the West make a public gesture of moral support for this strategically crucial area? I asked him to talk this over with the Chiefs of Staff and come up with some specific suggestions that I would consider constructively. This morning the Chiefs reported to me: the RSA would like to have a British presence at Simonstown, American, failing that, but they're hesitant to deal with either of our countries due to our positions on their racial policies.
"My view is that it would be far more appropriate for the British to return to Simonstown than for the Americans to take over an old British stronghold. I hope you may agree that it is also appropriate that there should be a rough division of responsibility between the USA riding herd on North Africa, North Central Africa, and the Horn of Africa, and Britain, along with Europe, keeping watch on Southern Africa."
This time Nigel Lawson began his reply by saying that he welcomed these proposals and would recommend them to his Cabinet, but until the Cabinet had taken a formal decision there should be no public statement, though he hoped this could be done in time for both of their speeches tomorrow evening. To Frank Carlucci's obvious dismay---he had hoped to discuss common policies towards Africa (with special regard to South Africa)---the meeting now ended in a welter of self-congratulation. The Cabinet meeting which Nigel Lawson had requested before he left Washington was held at the odd hour of 9:00 so that ministers on duty at the Conservative party conference in Brighton could get down there later that morning.
When it had been announced in April that the Conservatives were going to meet earlier than usual in 1985, there had been intense speculation that this was because PM Thatcher intended to use the occasion to call for an election for the end of October, 7 months before the constitutional limit on this Parliament's life. There were good reasons for this: bye-elections had been going badly for the Government for some time, and the emergence of a center grouping in the country was posing a growing threat to its electoral chances. The Commonwealth Group, led by former prime minister Edward Heath, had been formed outside Parliament as a reaction to the insensitive handling of economic and immigration issues at the 1982 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' meeting, which had left Britain isolated from both the old and the new Commonwealth. Though the Group made no pretense of being a new parliamentary party it did recruit a big number of MPs to its ranks from all parties and they were the stars of its public meetings. It was a haven for Tory 'wets' and Labor right-wingers, as well as the natural home of the underrepresented but increasingly popular Alliance. The Conservative party's electoral strategists foresaw a true threat from this quarter if the government had to endure another winter of unemployment rising well above 50% among Commonwealth (esp. Zimbabwean) immigrants. For all these reasons the odds were in favor of an October election when the party conference assembled.
Despite the best efforts of the publicity machine, the news from Washington of the proceedings at the IMF/Bank meeting had swamped the rather dull proceedings of the Brighton conference. Lawson's prominent position in the international financial proceedings was not happily received at Tory HQ, where it seemed to give ammunition to those who criticized the government as hard-faced and ruthless. In the city, Lawson's original speech proposing that Africa be cast out of the Bretton Woods institutions was received with horror, yet it was at this exact time that the Cabinet, under the lash of Mrs. Thatcher, had endorsed this high-risk policy. Now, two days later, in the middle of an international banking freeze, the policy seemed to have worked.
All of this was well known to Cabinet members when they trooped into the Cabinet Room just as the Horse Guards clock was striking nine. Each had received in the past few minutes a cabinet paper of about 800 words setting forth the proposal about the Simonstown base.
It was introduced to the Cabinet by Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine, and then Lawson added a few touches about his conversation with President Reagan, finally requesting agreement to the announcement being made in his late-afternoon speech to the party conference, which would be just before Reagan addressed the American people on television.
As so often happens when critical decisions have to be taken by a somewhat reluctant Cabinet there was only a little desultory discussion about how much money would have been spent in taking over the Simonstown base again. As the discussion petered out PM Thatcher glanced around the table and was about to sum up when Lord Chancellor Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, who had remained silent, cleared his throat and began to speak, very softly and less emphatically than was his custom. He made it quite clear that he had agreed to the proposals that followed inevitably from the decisions earlier in the week, which he had also supported. But as the oldest member of the Cabinet, he wanted all his colleagues to pause for a moment and recognize the consequences of their decisions: they were entering into a military alliance with the Republic of South Africa which an earlier Conservative government ("of which I was a humble member") had helped to expel from the Commonwealth. This alliance would almost surely mean that at least the African members would quit the Commonwealth. In the past week, the Cabinet had, in effect, reserved the 40-year-old policy of paternalistic care for the poorer members of the Commonwealth, with consequent unknown but serious risks, both around the world and in British cities. He concluded almost plaintively: "All of this has been undertaken without real discussion in a recess before the last half year of an old Parliament. One thing is certain, we cannot go to the country in a period of such great peril. We will have to go at a time not of our choosing, in quite unpredictable circumstances."
PM Thatcher glanced around the table again and then began to sum up as resolutely as ever: "We are agreed to go ahead with all speed toward the defense arrangements outlined in this Cabinet paper. The public announcement will be made by the Chancellor this afternoon, and I am confident that he can make it clear to the party and to the nation that we are acting firmly in self-defense against an act of economic aggression that cannot remain unpunished, even if members of the Commonwealth have taken part in the attack.
"I concur with Lord Chancellor Hogg that we will not consider a decision at this time, but I am confident, as are the US President and the West German Chancellor, that we can win this economic battle against the Dark Continent within six months. This time it may be constitutionally impossible to postpone the election beyond the moment of victory."
A few hours later TV viewers around the country, and soon around the world, were watching Chancellor Lawson as he went up into the rostrum to face the Tory party inquisition. To Lawson, and the commentators murmuring behind the television pictures, it was evident that beneath the flowered hats and behind the well-clipped moustaches there was a certain quizzical apprehension about what this man on the rostrum had done for them.
Chancellor Lawson had often enough faced party audiences which were distrustful of him because they thought him too clever by half in theory, or because they thought he was not clever enough in practice to twist the tails of the financial wizards. he'd spent most of the last 12 hours readying his speech for just such a mood, and he felt sure that he could win their confidence and, indeed, their patriotic support for a struggle with a wily enemy.
It was a long speech by party conference standards, but it was crafted to carry this particular audience with him step by step. The first half was good party and nationalistic rhetoric, and although not much of the financial detail was understood, it was well received, both by the audience in the hall, and (if opinion polls were anything to go by) by most of the large audience watching it live on TV. With the majority of his immediate audience won over, Chancellor Lawson felt that he could deal with the more serious part of his message. What would victory cost? How could it be preserved? This was the section of his speech that was almost universally chosen for foreign news excerpts, and it was seen and heard around the world with mixed feelings.
His put-down of Africa was applauded enthusiastically by the bulk of the conference. The TV audience was somewhat more puzzled but carried away the impression, shortly to be strongly reinforced, that Africa was an inferior, unworthy enemy, but dangerous. Lawson's explanation of how the IMF would deal with the multi-million debt "default" was less well understood, but accepted on faith by the mass TV audience, though there remained lingering doubts, particularly among the merchants and bankers at the Tory conference, about the true meaning and feasibility of "amputating" Africa.
Leading up to his peroration the Chancellor spoke of the dangers overcome and of the perils that remained but dwelt upon the opportunities for prosperity and growth once the economy was freed from the demands of an indigent, uncooperative, envious and fundamentally hostile Africa. Promises of better times to come, however, are not a strong currency at party conferences unless backed by reports of forceful action taken. Nigel Lawson could feel this slight unease in his audience. He could sense, too, a certain anxiety that he had placed Britain in a leading but exposed position. As an old politician, he knew just how to turn this to his advantage by a denouement that would allay fear and arouse pride.
"A line of crisis has formed in the eastern South Atlantic, from the Gulf of Guinea to the Cape of Good Hope," he told the conference. "The instability of the regimes in Africa has lead to their taking desperate measures. It is for this reason that Parliament has taken prompt and effective action, in partnership with the United States, to defend our interests.
"In the past 24 hours the War Secretary and I, with the Prime Minister's advice and encouragement, have had conversations with our American allies and other friendly powers. The United States will use and expand its base on Ascension Island, Wideawake Airfield. Ascension Island, as you recall, was a vital staging area in our 1982 campaign to retake the Falkland Islands and it will enable the full weight of American power to be brought to bear on any belligerent African state at least north of the Equator. At the same time, we have today accepted an invitation from the South African government to reestablish the full-scale naval base we once had at Simon's Town, and a naval task force will be sailing there tomorrow. Thus the full weight of British power will be available in Africa south of the Equator to help safeguard stability and to defend our interests there.
"I am glad to be able to give this good news first to this conference. It is for others to fill in the blanks, but I can say that when I left the White House a few hours ago the President of the United States said that he thought we had made the world a safer and more stable place. I agree.
"In this way, economic discipline will be backed by Anglo-American military strength, so that we may bring the world back to political sense and economic stability.
During the standing ovation the TV cameras peered around the hall, catching a group of African high commissioners in the diplomatic seats engaged in heated debate, then swung down to the pit stalls of this political theater where they showed a row of unsmiling leaders of the past: an ex-prime minister, an ex-foreign secretary, an ex-defense minister, an ex-foreign secretary, an ex-defense minister, and, behind them, equally glum, the rank and file of the Commonwealth Group. An unseen commentator on television said very softly, "There sits the conscience of Britain."472Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6IpUoPlP9j
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The US President's speech was aired some hours after Nigel Lawson's and it was much more of a team effort---a dozen White House staff worked on the production. President Reagan's contribution was the suggestion that instead of calling the whole affair a "debt-salvage exercise" it should be simply called "Operation Green Nail."
He began his TV spectacular with a ringing declaration that America had been stabbed in the back by those she sought to help. There followed a dizzying series of film clips showing peasants in Africa gratefully receiving bales of assistance wrapped in the Stars and Stripes. Having thus established that the US was the main source of development assistance, President Kalingba was shown, without sound, at the IMF meeting, followed by Donald Regan, with sound, denouncing Kalingba for repudiating his debts. "Such an act of treachery by a small country cannot remain unpunished," intoned the President.
At this point, the scriptwriters abruptly changed the style and gave the financial community a fairly technical description of how the debt problem would be handled internationally by the IMF. In the course of this, President Reagan announced that the freeze on international movements of funds would be relaxed by the US and its associates on Monday; but those countries that had voted for Kolingba's resolution would find their assets frozen until they gave convincing proof that they would pay their debts in full. If they failed to give such assurances the defaulters were to be immediately excluded from the wealth-creating, productive trading system centered on the United States. It was at this point when President Reagan was metaphorically casting Africa into outer darkness, that television did the same for him. Suddenly the screen went blank and then, for about ten seconds, a crudely printed message appeared: "This moment of sanity is brought to you by the Brothers of the Spear."
As soon as it disappeared, the picture was restored with President Reagan repeating the final sentence before he had been cut off. He concluded his speech almost immediately on a note of defiance: America was economically impregnable: it had just defeated a treacherous attempt to destroy its banking system, and it would do the same to any other attempt to harm its economic structure. But no one who was watching (as they were from Hudson's Bay to the Cape of Good Hope) paid too much attention to this part of the program because they were trying to guess how BOTS (as the Brothers of the Spear was already known) had broken into the Presidential address.
It has never been established how this was done: the President's speech was, yes, pre-recorded, which is how he seemed to recover so well and repeat his final words before the interruption. But who inserted the BOTS message? And at what point in the complicated electronic passage from the White House to the national transmitter to the network? This was never revealed.
The White House records do show, however, that one senior communications officer, who helped fill the quota for blacks, resigned on April 6, 1985, and was replaced after an interval by an American born in Taiwan.472Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjVckEFL9wz
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How far President Reagan succeeded in calming the fears of his electorate, and of his allies, by his television appearance was quickly assessed by the new computer poll system. Compoll had been developed in Britain by the London Computer Centre in conjunction with the existing teletext systems and it enabled a detailed poll to be fed directly into a computer and processed within about 12 hours. In Britain, by the dawn of 1985, terminals had been installed in over 5,000 homes, and in America, which began a year later, there were already 15,000 terminals. Europe was being "wired for polling" somewhat sporadically, with West Germany in the lead and Spain at last place, but preliminary tests had shown that in all these countries there was the capacity to produce in a day, poll findings rather more full and accurate than the conventional pollsters could do in one week.
Compoll showed that there was overwhelming support for the Washington debt settlement for Africa. The US, Britain, and West Germany all showed more than 2/3 in support; France, Italy, Benelux, and Scandinavia hovered around the 55% mark; while Spain, with its links to Guinea, Morocco, and the Spanish Sahara, was the lowest at 51%.
President Reagan and other architects of the Washington settlement had also been anxious to demonstrate to their public that it was a fair settlement---that Africa had earned the economic whipping that was about to be administered to them. Compoll showed that this part of their message had not gotten through. Attitudes toward Africa varied enormously from country to country (this was not carried in any detail by the media, though it was contained in the 15-page report issued by the Compoll organization). Public opinion in West Germany was shown to be anxious to restore trade as soon as possible with Africa and increase it as fast as possible. The French and Spanish were interested in maintaining and developing cultural, commercial, and political links with those parts of Africa that spoke their language; the Dutch were concerned about their expansive trade with the former Boer Republics (Transvaal and Orange Free State, especially). The strongest expressions of antagonism towards Africa came from the people of the US, directed primarily against African immigrants. Florida, Texas, and the southwest displayed a strong antipathy to the G52, which was reciprocated by the millions of immigrants from those countries---legal and illegal. The bare statistical tables reveal to the discerning eye what a flashpoint all three coasts (Gulf, Atlantic, Pacific) and the Mexican border had become.
A slim majority of the British people expressed vaguely warm feelings towards the Commonwealth as a concept but, as in America, a large majority said they wished to be rid of immigrant African residents of the British Isles.
That the British Commonwealth was about to become no more than a concept became apparent that weekend when the Secretary General of the Commonwealth was interviewed on Britain's favorite Sunday news program, Weekend World. The same program also showed, albeit inadvertently, something of the reaction to the Simonstown deal by immigrants themselves.
The program began with some background information to bring the supposedly ignorant viewers up to speed, on this occasion drawn mainly from the Sunday newspapers. This was followed by a piece of video verite which had looked as if had been shot by amateurs (in fact it had been shot by a civics class in a South London school) but which gave, in its naïve way, an extraordinarily vivid picture of the impact of events on a typical immigrant community. Viewers all over Britain were shown an ordinary Friday evening meeting in London's Brixton Town Hall of about 1,200 blacks protesting a series of local grievances. It was a relatively good-natured, noisy by unexciting meeting of which only one minute or two were shown; then, as the Chairman, a fat prosperous-looking Nigerian, was gathering up his papers after closing the meeting, he was handed a note which made him leap to his feet and demand silence. When at last there was a relative hush he slowly read out the message: "South London Radio has just announced that the British Government has made a treaty of alliance with the racist pigs in South Africa." It was not the most accurate of reports, but its impact was astonishing: total, stunned silence. The Chairman took advantage of this to express his horror at the Government's action and urge the crowd to go home quietly and not start any trouble at this time.
He was roughly shouldered out of the way by a tall gaunt Ashanti man, his dreadlocks swinging with each gesture of his head, who was the leader of an Afro-pop band waiting to take the hall over: "Yes, go home quietly so that the pigs can't pick you up, but go home so that you can make trouble, or worse trouble will come to you. The whites here and in Washington and in Pretoria are getting together to bring us down. We shall not let them. But go home quietly and listen to our radio. It will tell you what to do, because if they withdraw rights from us, OK, we withhold labor and services from them; if they put us outside their laws, OK, we'll make them outlaws in our territory, which is where we work as well as where we live; and if they....."
The videotape came to an abrupt, whirring end and the presenter hurriedly introduced Commonwealth Secretariat Sir Sonny Rampha, once the foreign minister of Guyana in the early '70s.
The interview was brief and to the point. The Secretary-General expressed shock at the British Government's intention to support South Africa militarily and regretted the lack of courtesy shown by the Government in failing to give him any warning. "For some time, he concluded, "we have been aware that Britain has lost interest in all Africans. First, the immigration door was shut in their faces by hiking the fees for students---the one living link that remained. And that last week Britain led the move to expel Africans from the international financial system. The sense of common purpose with Africa in the new Commonwealth has withered away. Yet the Commonwealth is not going to vanish; the millions of children of the new Commonwealth who live in Britain will not leave it. But I fear that we in the Secretariat, the political arm of the Commonwealth, are bound to leave Britain since the links that bind us together have perished.
"I have consulted all the heads of member governments, and not one of them objects to leaving Britain---though it is true that neither the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom nor of New Zealand have yet replied to my message. India and Australia have offered us a new home, but I believe that we shall go to Africa, which is the center of gravity of the Commonwealth."
The Secretary-General's warning that the Commonwealth would leave Britain as a result of the Simonstown agreement was generally regarded as an empty threat. But within one week he was proved right and he was en route to Lagos. His departure would have been barely noticed had it not been for the fact that his flight was delayed. The Nigerian Airways aircraft was on the runway, but for over 1 hour the Secretary-General, all his staff, and five High Commissioners who were leaving with him had been killing time in the elegant yet cramped and chilly waiting room of a tiny RAF station in the Chilterns.
In the nearby office of Wing Commander Autry, the station commander, Tim Renton, an Undersecretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, was fidgeting irritably. Just as he had been about to bid the Secretary-General a formal fair well a call had come through from Buckingham Palace. It was the Queen's Private Secretary enquiring just how it was that nobody had told the Palace that the Secretary-General and the High Commissioners were leaving the country today, and why they were leaving not from Heathrow but from the station of the Queen's Flight at Benson. Tim Renton had mumbled the truth, which was that since aircraft "of African origin" would be impounded if they flew into commercial airports, it had been thought best for the Nigerian Airways aircraft, sent to fetch the Commonwealth Secretariat, to fly to an RAF base. In the general effort to avoid public attention, someone had slipped up and forgotten to alert the Palace, but he was sure that he could explain to the Secretary-General.
The Private Secretary cut him short: "Don't explain anything, but tell him why HM's representative will be late, apologize on your behalf for this fuck-up, and we'll have someone along as fast as possible, even if I must come myself."
Less than thirty minutes later the familiar thumping of a helicopter coming into land preceded the announcement over the intercom. "Purple clearance, Harry King Bravo two zero diverted, clearance to land."
"We'd better go out and meet the Private secretary," said Tim Renton nervously, as the station commander started towards the apron. They stood for a few moments being blown into disarray by the helicopter's blades until the pilot appeared on the steps, and removing his paraphernalia revealed the familiar features of Charles, Prince of Wales. "Hello, Autry; sorry to keep you waiting but there was some screw-up about this. Anyway, let's get on with it.....I say you must be the FCO Undersecretary, Tim Renton. Can you take me over to our departing guests? Sorry to add to your problems but I shouldn't shake off the two TV men from the roster---they're my shadows. They can join the other pressmen."
"There are no other pressmen, Your Royal Highness."
"Just as well I brought them, then. It wouldn't be a proper send-off if it wasn't on TV."
By this time they had reached the waiting room and Tim Renton suggested that he should present the Secretary-General and the High Commissioners, but Prince Charles waved him aside, quite politely, walked and went straight up to the Secretary-General, greeting him warmly. He then picked out two of the High Commissioners whom he knew well from his recent African trip and, finally, was presented by the Secretary-General to the others.
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"May I just add my farewell, and apologize for having kept you waiting. Punctuality is the politeness of princes, but do not adjust your watches. It was due to a technical hitch."
Then, standing at the exit door, Prince Charles shook hands with each of the departing officials. It took rather a long time but was much appreciated---especially by the cameramen. After the aircraft had taken off, with a great revving of engines, for it is a short runway, Prince Charles joined the station commander and Tim Renton for coffee. he told them how he had been diverted from a flight down to his home in Gloucestershire by an imperious order from the Queen. "She never forgets that she is Head of the Commonwealth and that each head of a Commonwealth government has the right of access to her without going through Downing Street---which is why she was so angry at not being told of the departure of their representatives to Our Court."472Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTJ5oQrlVHG
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Prince Charles' farewell to Commonwealth Secretariat Sir Sonny Ramphal was very extensively covered on TV, but there was no historical sense of it being the last spasm of the Empire and the Commonwealth. The whole episode was summed up by a regular participant in a TV panel discussion as a very sporting gesture on the part of the Royals to not let politics interfere with sentiment. "I only hope the Prince will be on hand to welcome the Zimbabwean cricketers when they arrive for their first Test matches next summer."
