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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 25, 1985
PAGE 11
A thoughtful Londoner, a professional man who usually votes as an
independent, put it this way: "I don't care what the economists
say. When you see the pound come down to the same rate as the
dollar, it's simply humiliating."
Significantly, the plunge of the pound is occurring at the same time that
Britain has at last agreed to divest itself of Hong Kong--a major world fi
nancial market--and has even agreed to open discussions with Spain over the
future ownership of Gibraltar, the very symbol of British stability and
steadfastness.
The Kennedy "Outrage"
Our South African office sent us some additional on-the-spot material this
week regarding the visit of Senator Ted Kennedy. Among the many articles,
the following steaming editorial from the national SUNDAY TIMES (January
13) entitled "An Arrogant Talent to Outrage" stood out:
For eight days [ Senator Kennedy] has outraged South Africans of
all political persuasions•••• He has also•••produced a unique if
temporary show of unity from most whites and many blacks, whose
devout wish was that the Kennedy circus should find another coun
try to play in.
That unity was based not on support for the Government or its
policies, but on a mounting sense of outrage at the breathtaking
arrogance of a foreign politician who is not only singularly un
qualified to teach South Africa about morals, but whose behaviour
towards both this country and his own government proves that he
has nothing to teach us about manners, either••••
Senator Kennedy's•••blatant if highly-selective courting of
television coverage, his disdainful treatment of [ Zulu] Chief
Gatsha Buthelezi, his tunnel vision in seeking, seeing and then
pronouncing on only that side of South Africa which reinforced
his prejudices, his attack on �is own government's representative
in South Africa [ Ambassador Herman Nickel], all betray the in
sensitive arrogance of a man who once believed he could survive
the scandal of Chappaquiddick and then run for President of the
United States.
In the U.S. press, columnist Patrick J. Buchanan said the one good thing the
Senator's trip did accomplish was to unite the Boers and the Zulus for the
first time in history--meaning over the issue of disinvestment. Mr. Buch
anan wrote two columns on the blind-sightedness of crusading liberal poli
ticians such as Mr. Kennedy, who routinely attack imperfect democracies
such as South Korea and South Africa, but go easy on the totalitarian
states. In his January 18 column, Mr. Buchanan wrote:
Somewhere in the middle '60s, liberalism, the political belief of
such anti-communists as Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy, lost
its moorings. Probably, it was the nervous breakdown liberalism
suffered � Vietnam.... In any event, by 1972, when Sen.
George McGovern's cohorts took over, the party was an institution
permanently disabled. Somewhere, it had lost its sense of his
tory, its sense of perspective, and permanent damage had been