A case, surely, of a knife in the wrong back

I remember the brigadier well. A lifetime of service in the British Army behind him. Retired now, and living on his Army pension in Salisbury, Rhodesia.

An implacable opponent of Rhodesia's Prime Minister, Mr. Smith. And a good friend of Britain.

But I know what he will be thinking about Britain - or, rather, the British Government, today. He will be angry that Mr. Wilson has stabbed him in the back.

For no longer will the brigadier be receiving his well-won Army pension from Britain.

Sanctions

As far as Mr. Wilson is concerned, the brigadier can live without it from now on.

He is a victim of Mr. Wilson's decision, as part of the sanctions war, to stop the payment of all pensions from Britain to people living in Rhodesia.

A petty, punitive step. One that can only weaken anti-Smith feeling in Rhodesia.

Only a piffling sum is involved: just half a million pounds a year - hardly a figure to worry Mr. Smith.

There are 3,500 people in Rhodesia who receive pensions from Britain. They include civil servants, soldiers, sailors, airmen, all of whom have served Britain well and now live on retirement pensions.

They include, too, more than 500 people receiving pensions for disablement in the wars they fought for Britain. And they include 1,859 receiving old-age or widows' pensions.

Like the 91-year-old widow I met in a Salisbury restaurant.

Struggle

Poor dear, I suppose she did not really know what it was all about - the political struggle, I mean. But she kept repeating to me “We must stand by the Queen; it's the Queen we must stand by.”

And there was a man of 84 sipping a sedate half-pint in Speke's bar. He was a retired civil servant, 20 years out from Britain. For an hour he talked to me, closely, keenly. And he hated Smith.

Wrong

Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, the Opposition spokesman on pensions, told me: “This is a mean-minded action that is absolutely wrong. Britain is dishonouring her obligations to people who fought for us. It is bound to cause hardship out there - and can have no influence in deciding the issue.”

Other Tory MPs are equally angry. Twelve, led by Mr. Raymond Gower (Barry, Glamorgan) have tabled a motion calling it “a cruel decision.” And Mr. Heath is known to be incensed at the Government's step.

But not only MPs are attacking Mr. Wilson.

The Executive Committee of the Overseas Pensioners' Association, representing 25,000 men and women abroad, yesterday called it “an inhuman action against loyal and innocent ex-servants of the Crown, and their widows.”

And the association makes a good thrust when it reminds Mr. Wilson that only 16 days ago, on the radio, he promised Rhodesian civil servants who stayed loyal that they would not lose their pension rights.

Of course, British Governments always think of pensions as their own money. But what Mr. Wilson is really doing is pilfering this money.

For old-age pensioners paid for their pensions in National Insurance stamps over the years when they were working in Britain.

Irony

The biggest irony, though, is that if Rhodesia were a foreign country Mr. Wilson would be dropping paratroops to protect loyal Britons.

Yet loyalists in Rhodesia, in fact, are now being penalised

And I think now of a man who was unloyal to Britain once - Guy Burgess, traitor.

When he fled to Russia the Government refused to stop his small British private income being paid to him in Moscow. …

To my mind, it is astounding that Mr. Wilson, with all Africa on the verge of major conflagration, should take time out to deliver such a petty pin-prick.

But - pin-prick, did I say? To the brigadier and his fellow-loyalists in Rhodesia it is a knife between the shoulders.