SPEECH
GIVEN BY A.D.HARVEY AT THE "RAISING OF THE FLAG" CEREMONY IN NORFOLK ON 11th SEPTEMBER 2016.
Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Rhodesians,
Once again this year I consider it a very
great honour to be invited to address this inspiring ceremony. Since I spoke
here last year a lot has happened in the world, which excitingly has mainly
proved to be very good news for the British and British-descended people around
the globe. There has, alas, been one very retrograde development during the
last twelve months which has angered and outraged all British patriots, and
those with Rhodesian roots and connections in particular.
This has been the so-called “Rhodes must Fall” campaign, initially
orchestrated by malcontents from the University of Cape Town (those who Rhodes’s great
contemporary and admirer Rudyard Kipling once termed “the lesser breeds”) whose
aim has been to obliterate all statues and memorials to Cecil John Rhodes from
the once great educational establishments of the “new” South Africa. Under its current dispensation
this campaign was predictably successful within the “new” South Africa itself, but it then sickeningly
spread to Oxford University where similar low-life - who
should never have been allowed to enrol in the University in the first place -
tried to ape their primeval “new” South African counterparts. Happily the
authorities at Oxford University displayed more backbone than
their academic equivalents in the “new” South Africa, and the demands to remove the
statues and memorials to Rhodes at Oxford were dismissed out of hand. But
what is it about Rhodes that makes our enemies so fearful of his glorious legacy some 114
years after his death? Surely therefore it is time to remind ourselves afresh
of his life and achievements.
I regard Cecil John Rhodes as being one of
the greatest people who Britain has ever produced. He is one of
two historical heroes of mine who I’ve been honoured to have visited both their
place of birth and their grave (the other being Lord Carson – Sir Edward
Carson). Cecil John Rhodes was born at Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire, the
son of an Anglican clergyman (by being the child of a clergyman this of course
puts him in the same category as our new Prime Minister and my own dear late
wife), and had both English and Scottish blood in his veins. Although
academically brilliant at school, and a keen sportsman (being especially keen
on Cricket and Athletics, particularly throwing the javelin) he was unfortunately
quite sickly as a child. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise,
for his brothers Frank and Herbert had earlier been bitten by the Imperial
pioneer spirit and had moved to the African colonies, and Cecil was sent out to
Umkomaas in Natal, where Herbert had established
a cotton farm, in order to build up his strength. Almost immediately upon
arriving Cecil realised what his life’s mission was to be: “If there be a God”
he said “I think what He would like me to do is to paint as much of Africa
British red as possible”. Subsequent events of course proved not only that
there definitely was a God, but also that Cecil Rhodes fulfilled his mission!
Shortly after the discovery of
diamonds at Kimberley Herbert left his cotton farm in Cecil's hands and
travelled to the Diamond Fields to prospect. With far-sighted common-sense that
is a excellent example to modern-day patriots, Cecil
realised that his long-term patriotic ambitions could only be accomplished with
the aid of a solid financial foundation. It was not long, therefore, before
Cecil came to join his brother Herbert, and with a single-mindedness which
typifies those who work for higher ideals than mere personal gain, soon made
himself one of the wealthiest and most powerful diamond mine owners in Kimberley. With the aid of this financial
security he returned to Britain to study at Oxford, commuting each year between
the two parts of the Empire in order to keep firm control of his growing
business successes in Kimberley. Immediately he graduated,
however, he entered politics, being elected to the Cape Parliament in 1881, and by 1890 becoming
Prime Minister of the Cape.
From this additional position of
power he set out to ensure that his next Imperial ambition was accomplished,
namely the immediate establishment of a new British Colony north of the Limpopo River. The British Government at the
time, alas, proved only luke-warm to this inspired
and visionary plan, but Rhodes was not to be discouraged; he established a new
"trading" company, the British South Africa Company, and with
the aid of a pioneer column of only 580 courageous patriotic volunteers crossed
the border from British Bechuanaland into the unclaimed territory on July 10th
1890. In barely two months the brave pioneers had tamed the roving Black tribes
of the area, and on September 13th the Union Flag was proudly hoisted over the
newly established capital city site of Salisbury. Thus, by the time of his death
twelve years later, two countries bore Rhodes' name: Southern and Northern Rhodesia! Not since the days of
Alexander the Great had one man been feted with so many new place-names in his
honour!
Rhodes was not only a British patriot
in the national sense, but also in the often controversial context of race. As
early as his Oxford days he had remarked to friends at dinner
"I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of
the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. I contend that every
acre added to our territory provides for the birth of more of the (British)
race, who otherwise would not be brought into existence.".
Whilst Prime Minister of the Cape he assiduously made friends with his fellow
Whites, the Afrikaners, and it was therefore the ultimate of tragedies that
through the intransigence of the Transvaal President, Paul Kruger, and
over-hasty action by his great colleague and mentor Leander Starr Jameson, the
two great White populations of Southern Africa were set in conflict, which alas
culminated in the fratricidal Anglo-Boer War. Rhodes worked steadfastly to avoid
this disastrous conflict, but once war proved unavoidable he gave his full
support to the Imperial forces. His personal bravery knew no bounds (he had
earlier journeyed alone and unarmed to negotiate submission terms with a Black
chief in Rhodesia) and he remained in Kimberly
for the duration of the four months siege.
The tragedy of the Anglo-Boer
War also proved a personal disaster for Rhodes; his health deteriorated as a result, and
he died prematurely at Muizenberg in the Cape in 1902. His ultimate life's dream, that of British colonies stretching the length of Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, thus remained unfulfilled at
his death. In his first Will Rhodes left his entire estate "for the
establishment, promotion and development of a secret society, the true aim and
object whereof shall be the extension of British rule throughout the world.". Whether such a body was ever actually established
has been a matter of historical conjecture, but it is a fact that by the time
of his death, with a British Government in power far more favourably disposed
towards the ideals of Imperial expansion, Rhodes had altered his Will to
provide simply for scholarships to Oxford University for the elite sons of the
Empire.
Alas, although in the decades
immediately following Rhodes’s death the British Empire produced many more great men and women who
continued his vision, and indeed the British Empire reached its zenith in the years
following World War One, the latter half of the 20th Century saw a
rapid and fundamental decline in Britain’s fortunes and position in the
world. The British Empire was criminally dismembered, and although
the spectre of the British Commonwealth was established in its place this proved
only a fig-leaf to hide the treason which the abandonment of Empire entailed.
Britain declined dramatically economically as a direct result of the loss of
practically all its colonies, and even more frighteningly the chaotic
instability of the newly “independent” former colonies caused massive unwanted
immigration into the United Kingdom itself, resulting in even steeper economic
decline, escalating lawlessness and widespread social unrest. Finally the
little men who ruled Britain following World War Two decided
to abandon the very sovereign independence of the United Kingdom itself by joining the
German-dominated European Union.
All this was during the latter
half of the 20th Century of course, but I’ve detected that a
fundamental sea-change took place at roughly the turn of the Millennium which
changed fortunes for the better for not only Britain but for the Western world
as a whole – a sea-change which was a mirror-image of the retrogressive
sea-change which occurred in the decades following World War Two. I have often
been criticised for being too optimistic in this regard, but in spite of a
number of set-backs during the 2000s I still stand by this interpretation of
events. Furthermore, I believe that the current year, 2016, has already
witnessed some of the most encouraging signs yet!
Let us look therefore at what
has already happened during 2016. The year started with a referendum in one of
the great Imperial brother countries so close to Rhodes’s heart – New Zealand – on whether to abandon the
traditional design of their national flag, which of course features the Union
Flag. All the “received wisdom” from the “chattering classes” was that New
Zealanders would vote for this change by a large margin – but in the event they
voted to retain their true flag by a massive margin of 13.5%! (Interestingly,
shortly after this the Fijian government announced that they would not alter
the traditional Fijian flag by removing the Union Flag from it – thus showing
that the non-Whites of Fiji appreciate the advantages that benevolent British
rule brought to their country, even if the students of the “new” South Africa
don’t!).
An even more significant victory
for the British people was just around the corner however, in the form of the
Referendum on the UK’s continuing membership of the
European Union. Again the “received wisdom” of the “chattering classes” was
that there was no chance that the “Vote Leave” campaign could win – but they
did, by 52% to 48%. Perhaps not a landslide, but even so a very significant
victory margin of one and a quarter million votes!
Many have observed that the
fantastic success of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic
Games gave the British people so much renewed self-confidence in their own
abilities to achieve success on their own without being part of some wider EU grouping,
that this was a major contributing factor which gave them the self-belief to
“Vote Leave”. I agree, and would actually go further by asserting that the
subsequent triumphs at the Rio 2016 Olympics were caused to a significant
degree by the euphoria generated by the “Vote Leave” triumph. One further
point; “Zimbabwe”, that land which was once civilised Rhodesia, won Zero medals
at the Rio Games, and as a result Mugabe, the demonic tyrant of that
beleaguered land, has now ordered the arrest of the entire national team! The
team of the “former colonial master” who he of course constantly maligns won 67
medals – 27 Golds, 23 Silver and 17 Bronze!
Cecil John Rhodes was a great
Imperial Patriot and a keen sportsman. Had he been alive today he would undoubtedly
have been as excited as I’ve been by the positive developments of 2016. I would
also like to remind you of another great Rhodesian patriot who is a true credit
to the nation which Cecil John Rhodes founded, namely Peter Sladden.
By keeping alive the “Raising of the Flag” ceremony for all these years in
exile he has done invaluable service to the cause which Rhodes aspired towards. I for one am delighted that Peter has lived
long enough to witness 2016, the year when a great nation has arisen again!
Rhodes’s dying words were “So little
done, so much to do.". It has been the duty of all those who have followed
him to continue that which he began. 2016 has certainly shown that our current
generation is up to the task – but there is still much to be done. I’ve talked
enough, so I’ll shut up. We all now have much work to do!
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