Speech at Chomagora Village (Zimbabwe)
| Document type: | Speeches, interviews, etc. |
|---|---|
| Venue: | Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe |
| Source: | Thatcher MSS (Churchill Archive Centre): THCR [COI transcript] |
| Editorial comments: | Around 1050. The transcriber noted "abysmal sound quality". |
| Importance ranking: | Minor |
| Word count: | 375 |
| Themes: | Foreign policy (Africa), Foreign policy (development, aid, etc) |
Honourable Minister and other Ministers and other Very Distinguished Guests.
Honourable Minister, may I thank you for that marvellous explanation, with the utmost clarity. I think too that your Minister of Agriculture must be very pleased with your performance and that you have reached all of those targets, so many targets, so many statistics it was quite a lesson in arithmetic.
Thank you very much indeed. We were very anxious to come and see you. We wanted to see for ourselves what is being done with these marvellous land resettlement schemes. We think it is wonderful to have a place like this, with fertile soil, inside a rib of mountain with a very good school, very good health services and obviously a wonderful community spirit which you have built for yourselves. [end p1]
That says so much because I know that you have come from different parts of this country to build this particular settlement. And we are delighted, and we think the crops look excellent, and we are delighted with the variety that you are growing. But that is a matter for your planning Minister and for your Minister of Agriculture.
We are just a little concerned that the two ladies who came for our very great delectation and happiness did not quite receive the thanks that we thought they deserved.
We would like to thank them very much for the graceful way in which they carried out their duties and the way in which they submitted to their total absence of reward at the end.
Now we would like to come round and see you but we know that you want one or two extra facilities. We understand that the ladies want a washing area and we are going to allocate some $1,500 for that, for the ladies washing area, that is right. We have been very practical.
And also we can see for ourselves that you are very good at sewing, and the lovely things you are wearing, and also thought you would like to take some sewing machines, so we have brought one of those too. [end p2]
Thank you very much and we shall look forward one day to visiting you and seeing the children whom we saw in your school, full grown, and having their own farming and making their own contribution to the future of your great country.
Thank you very much for a very happy morning and many thanks to you all and greetings from the United Kingdom.