NEWFOUNDLAND - RHODESIA’S
CLOSE BUT FORGOTTEN COUSIN
by Alan D.
Harvey
During a visit I
made to Newfoundland in 2019
I was reminded strongly of my times in Rhodesia during
the 1970s. It wasn’t just the outdoors lifestyle and the closeness to untamed
nature, but also the character of the people and their overwhelming
friendliness – and of course both lands also have their own native breeds of
dogs named after them: the Newfoundland Retriever and the Rhodesian Ridgeback! As I came to study the history of Newfoundland (or Newfoundland and Labrador to give
it its correct current title) more closely, however, I realised that the two
lands had something far more specific in common, namely their relationship to a
larger and more powerful neighbour.
Constitutionally
the developments of the two lands were very similar, albeit that these
developments were a century or so apart. Newfoundland had
been discovered in 1497 by John Cabot on a commission from the English Crown,
though it was only officially declared an English colony by Sir Humphrey
Gilbert in 1583. Rhodesia on the
other hand had been founded with a Royal Charter by Cecil John Rhodes and his
pioneer column in 1890, though only officially declared a colony (as Southern
Rhodesia) in 1923. Newfoundland gained
its first elected assembly in 1832 whereas the Southern Rhodesian Legislative
Council was established in 1899. Newfoundland
achieved full self-government (or Responsible Government as it was termed) in
1855, whereas Southern Rhodesia was
granted self-government at the time it was declared a British colony, it coming
into force in 1924. Newfoundland gained
full independence with Dominion status within the British
Commonwealth in 1907, whereas Rhodesia
achieved full independence in 1965 – albeit by unilateral declaration.
But it is the
relationship of the two lands to their larger neighbours – Canada and South
Africa respectively –
which is the most interesting parallel however. Although their peoples were
almost identical in ethnic origin to those of their more powerful neighbours,
both countries had developed a distinct identity within a relatively very short
time period, and the majority of people in both places didn’t wish to lose this
identity by being swallowed up into a larger nation. Newfoundland voted
in 1869 not to join Canada, with
the Anti-Confederation Party winning the General Election of the same year, and
Southern Rhodesia of course voted
against joining the Union of South Africa in the Referendum of 1922.
The coming of WW1
produced another striking similarity however. It is well known that Southern
Rhodesia produced more volunteers per head of White
population than any other part of the British Empire and
Commonwealth – but Newfoundland
couldn’t have been far behind. Newfoundland’s
figures are masked however. The two main working-class occupations in the
country were fishing and lumberjacking. At the
outbreak of WW1 fishermen were all encouraged to join the Royal Navy Reserve,
which entailed little more than donning uniform, placing a gun on the bow of
their boats, and carrying on much as usual. A Newfoundland Forestry Corps was
founded because of the massive need for timber in the war effort, and again
this meant that workers simply donned uniforms and carried on much as normal. A
new Newfoundland Regiment was however formed by the then Governor, Sir Walter
Davidson, on the outbreak of war, and he promised Britain that he
would raise 6,000 men. In the end he raised over 8,000, but as all the
fishermen and lumberjacks had their own reserved services this meant that the
new regiment was comprised almost entirely of the middle and upper classes –
the civil servants, schoolmasters, lawyers, accountants and shop-keepers etc..
The Newfoundland
Regiment first went into action in the Dardanelles Campaign alongside their ANZAC Commonwealth
brothers, but after the failure of this campaign they were moved to the Western
Front. Their first main engagement here was at the Battle of the Somme. When
the roll-call came on the morning after their first day of this battle only
just over 600 of the approximate 8000 who had gone into action answered their
names. The rest were either dead, injured, captured or
missing. As a result of this bravery King George V awarded the extremely young
regiment the prefix of “Royal”, but the cream of Newfoundland’s
manhood had been annihilated. This however was not only tragic for the country,
it was disastrous. As the older generation of politicians and government
officials retired and died off during the 1920s there was
a very limited number of talented and able men from the WW1-generation
available to take their place. Government thus became incompetent (some say
corrupt), and this was made only worse by the 1929
Wall Street Crash and the
subsequent global slump. Riots broke out in St.Johns
in 1932 and the following year the Newfoundland Government declared themselves bankrupt and begged the British Government to
intervene, which they did in 1934 by declaring Newfoundland a
British colony once again, albeit with self-governing status.
After WW2 the
situation became radically different, and once again there arose a close
similarity between the fates of the two countries. Canada had for
long wanted to absorb Newfoundland because
of its rich mineral wealth, and as the Attlee socialist government in London wished
to wash its hands of all its colonial responsibilities they put pressure on Newfoundland to
merge into its more powerful neighbour. A dual-referendum was called in 1948 on
whether Newfoundland should
join Canada or
remain as an independent self-governing country, and after a very biased
campaign and allegations of vote-rigging (which still persist to this day)
Newfoundlanders narrowly voted to join Canada, a
merger which came into effect in 1949. It was of course a subsequent socialist
government in London, that
of Harold Wilson during the 1960s, which also wanted to wash its hands of its
former colonial ties, which put pressure on Rhodesia to cave
into even more catastrophic demands by accepting immediate Black majority rule
– the disastrous consequences of which are now crystal clear for all to see.
During my visit to Newfoundland I was
struck by how distinct the province still is to the rest of Canada. I
asked many of the Newfoundlanders (or “Newfies” as
they are colloquially called) whether they regarded themselves first and
foremost as Canadians or as Newfoundlanders, and the vast majority answered the
latter – with one woman even replying “I don’t regard myself as Canadian at
all!”. Ex-Rhodesians around the world who might not be
happy in their new locations could therefore do far worse – if they think they
could endure the harsh winters – than to consider moving to Newfoundland, where
the common ethnic origins and character of the people, and the outdoors life
close to nature, could very possibly provide them with unexpected memories of
their halcyon earlier life in Rhodesia,
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