- Title: RHODESIA: SIR HUMPHREY GIBBS LEAVES GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE FOR LAST TIME
- Date: 7th July 1969
- Summary: GOVERNMENT HOUSE; GIBBS AND LADY GIBBS SHAKE HANDS WITH SERVANTS; CAR LEAVES; CROWD WATCH; POLICE CAR; POLICE; SIR HUMPHREY'S DOG DISCONSOLATE IN GROUNDS; UNION JACK IN GROUNDS. Initials MJS/VS/JF/ES Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 22nd July 1969 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SALISBURY, RHODESIA
- Country: Zimbabwe
- Reuters ID: LVA89Q8XFHAV5FW94F6RTJHRQ2VR
- Story Text: SIR HUMPHREY GIBBS SHOOK HANDS WITH MEMBERS OF HIS STAFF YESTERDAY MORNING (JULY 6), CLIMBED INTO HIS WHITE MERCEDES, AND SWEPT OUT OF THE GATES OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SALISBURY. WITH HIM, AS HE LEFT HIS OFFICIAL RESIDENCE FOR THE LAST TIME, WENT THE LAST FRAGMENT OF BRITISH AUTHORITY IN RHODESIA.
SIXTY-SIX YEAR OLD SIR HUMPHREY, APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF RHODESIA TEN YEARS AGO, HAD STAYED AT HIS POST SINCE THE SMITH REGIME SEIZED INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITAIN IN 1965. HE WITHSTOOD HARASSMENT AND REJECTION BY THE RHODESIAN AUTHORITIES FOR FOUR YEARS IN THE HOPE THAT BY REMAINING AS GOVERNOR HE MIGHT SERVE AS A VITAL LINK WITH BRITAIN IN ANY TALKS ON A SETTLEMENT.
HE ONLY LEFT HIS RESIDENCE FOR A FEW HOURS AT A TIME OF FEAR OF NOT BEING ALLOWED BACK. ONLY WHEN THE WHITE-DOMINATED ELECTORATE LAST MONTH APPROVED PLANS TO TURN RHODESIA INTO A REPUBLIC, AND THE CHANCE OF EVENTUAL MAJORITY RULE SEEMED FINALLY LOST, DID SIR HUMPHREY RESIGN.
HIS DEPARTURE WAS A QUIETLY EMOTIONAL AFFAIR. A CROWD OF ABOUT 750 PEOPLE, BOTH RHODESIAN AND AFRICAN, HAD GATHERED OUTSIDE THE GATES TO BID HIM GOODBYE. SOME OF THE WOMEN WERE WEEPING. SMALL UNION JACKS WERE WAVED IN A SAD HALF SALUTE. IRONICALLY, THE AUTHORITIES WHICH HAD FOR SO LONG IGNORED HIM PROVIDED A POLICE CAR ESCORT FOR THE MERCEDES AND A SECOND CAR CONTAINING HIS SON-IN-LAW.
WHEN THE FORMER GOVERNOR HAD LEFT FOR THE BULAWAYO FARM, TO WHICH HE MIGRATED FROM ENGLAND IN 1928, RHODESIAN POLICE MOVED IN TO GUARD THE RESIDENCE. SIR HUMPHREY'S FAVOURITE DOG, MICKEY, WANDERED DISCONSOLATELY ABOUT HE GROUNDS, AND A FEW OF HIS PERSONAL STAFF REMAINED TO COMPLETE THE LAST FORMALITIES OF DEPARTURE. ONE OF THESE WAS THE FINAL LOWERING OF THE UNION JACK, WHICH IS BEING GIVEN TO THE ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL IN SALISBURY, TO COMMEMORATE THE PART THAT BRITAIN HAS PLAYED IN RHODESIA'S DEVELOPMENT.
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