Editor’s Note: Thanks to Monica Stone for sending this along. As a historical note, it is important to mention that White Rhodesia officially fell to the Communist Africans 3 years later due to worldwide pressure and sanctions.
Inspiring Note in Battle for Rhodesia
The New Times, August, 1977
Writing of the critical Battle for Britain in the Second World War, Churchill said never before had so many owed so much to the few. When the true history of the mounting battle for the world is written, it may be recorded that it was little Rhodesia which provided the inspiration necessary to bring a decadent West back to those eternal values which Western political leaders have besmirched. Rhodesia may yet go down, betrayed by those should have stood by her, but as put so eloquently in the following address by the Rhodesian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. P.K. van der Byl, in officially opening the Memorial Lodge, Tsanga Lodge, Inyanga, on June 29, Rhodesia is remaining true to the memory of those who have already died defending their country against the forces of evil barbarism:
It is a fitting and inspired idea that we should honor and commemorate those Rhodesians who have fallen in the terrorist war in this manner which, while honoring them and perpetuating their memory, at the same time does so much to ease the lot of those who have been grievously wounded and whose courage and sacrifice are often equally great.
In this hall we are in an atmosphere of superb courage where one of the most gallant countries in history has produced a race of men and women whose fortitude has become a by-word and which is so great that to praise it is almost to belittle it.
The whole of our history has been a succession of brave and splendid deeds. The courage to which we have gathered here today to pay tribute, is the greatest of all human virtues it is the father of all other admirable traits – compassion, magnanimity, loyalty, kindness, devotion, tolerance and humility. It is only the brave who have all these qualities and these qualities are the outstanding characteristics of Rhodesia and Rhodesians.
It is therefore not surprising that we have produced this race of heroes who we honor today. Heroes cast in the same mould as Hector and Achilles, of Horatius and El Cid because after all, their forefathers fought at Agincourt and Alemein, they marched with Kruger and Botha and with Mzilikazi and the Monomatapa and though at times in the past we fought each other, we are now welded into one great force defending Rhodesia.
Out of the crucible of this terrible war a new race of warriors has been forged; a race of great diversity of origin embracing all colors of the spectrum but now eternally united in the brotherhood of the great and noble enterprise in which we are engaged – the defense of our homes, our people and our country.
This new race is a great and splendid thing and one can have no greater pride than to be able to say “I am a Rhodesian”.
This is a breed of men, the like of which has not been seen for many a long age and which may yet perhaps, by virtue of example that it sets, go some way towards redeeming the squalid and shameful times in which we live.
The cream of these men we are remembering today have made the supreme sacrifice but while we do them all the honor, let us not forget those who also bear a grievous burden of sorrow – their wives and their mothers, their fathers and their children, and their comrades who have been wounded and maimed.
I hope that in some way this Memorial Hall may also be a Memorial to them too, because this would undoubtedly be the wish of those who have fallen.
A long time ago a great American President, Abraham Lincoln dedicated a place under similar circumstances to these and I will quote what he said because I cannot improve on it:
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place of rest who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, who cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom.
I cannot too strongly emphasize my complete acceptance of the philosophy contained in this inspired declaration. Merely to go through this ceremony and no more is no fitting tribute to the fallen.
A Sacred Duty
In the final analysis the only meaningful and lasting, and indeed adequate, tribute that we can make to those who have made the supreme sacrifice is by all means in our power to ensure that their sacrifice was not made in vain, and that they fought and died for it to be preserved and cherished. This is our obligation. This is our responsibility. And this is our sacred duty.
We all know what our brave men fought for, and are still fighting for – to preserve their homes and families and to save this country from degradation and ruin. They died so that you and I could continue to live here and if we fail to do all in our power to ensure that their ideals and objectives are achieved, then we will have denied them and we will be traitors to all that they stood for and for which they fought and died.
I have a deep feeling of compassion for those Rhodesians who due to the economic and other factors, largely brought about by the sanctions imposed upon us by those who should be our friends, are forced to leave the country because it is impossible for them to make a living here. One has nothing but contempt for those who have left, and are still leaving, because they are tired of being called up, or because of inconvenience and even danger of living in Rhodesia during her present time of trouble.
These people are failing our dead and living fighting men and if the cause our soldiers died for should be lost, then an intolerable and shameful burden of responsibility will rest on the shoulders of those who fled, and haunt them for all of their days.
At the height of the last War an Englishman sent a prayer to Eleanor Roosevelt and this is what it said:
Dear Lord,
Lest I continue my complacent way, help me to remember
SOMEWHERE OUT THERE A MAN DIED FOR ME TODAY.
So long as there be war I must then ask myself and answer
AM I WORTH DYING FOR?
Let our conduct be such.
Let all of us so bear ourselves, so carry out our duty that we are worth dying for.
Seldom in the history of mankind has a gallant little country such as ours, with so many virtues and so little fault, been so grievously beset by enemies as we are.
Holding Back the Soviet Monster
The Russian colossus is on the march to subjugate and enslave all of Africa and we like the Spartans at Thermopylae are a major stumbling block in their path. At the same time, the greatest power on earth – the United States, together with Great Britain for whom so many of our fathers died, do all in their power, diplomatically and economically, to strangle us.
A loathsome and savage foe howls at our gates, backed by the Russians and succored and comforted by those who should be our friends.
Every imaginable pressure is brought to bear on us, by those who have little regard for the peace and happiness of our people. To come to terms and settle at any cost. We must make, and no matter what the rebuffs, continue to make, every effort to secure a settlement which might mean the end of the war and the necessity for our people to fight and die.
But we must not – and we will not – come to any accommodation which is not in keeping with the ideals and the objectives for which these men had laid down their lives. To do so would be the utter rejection of everything they fought for; to do so would be the total betrayal of the trust and duty which they bequeathed to us.
No matter what the difficulties, no matter how hard the road; no matter how apparently great the odds, we must endeavor to emulate the high example and courage which they have shown, in order to justify their sacrifice.
And if the battle should wax forever, and if the forces arrayed against us should become immeasurably stronger, there can be no question of surrender: every inch of ground will be fought for.
We will contest every hill and every river; every village and every town; every cross-road and every bridge. Inevitably an unavoidably the land will suffer.
Indescribable chaos and irreparable destruction will follow but, come what may, we will uphold the ideals for which these men fought. We cannot let them down.
And now with profound humility and with all my homage, I declare this Memorial to the Fallen officially open, and I call on all soldiers, civilians, all Rhodesians, to dedicate ourselves to ensuring that these men did not die in vain.
Monica’s Comments
As it was true in 1977 it is even more so in 2016. We are all Rhodesians now, beleaguered and attacked by the same enemy. As it was then, it is now.
The question is are we going to honor our fallen, or are we going to just forget and move on? Are we going to allow evil to triumph or finally stand together and fight and resist as one?
Source Article from http://www.renegadetribune.com/the-battle-for-rhodesia/
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