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‘MACMILLAN, VERWOERD, AND THE 1960 ‘WIND OF CHANGE’ SPEECH*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2011

SAUL DUBOW
SAUL DUBOW*
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
*
Department of History, University of Sussex, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9RH[email protected]
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Abstract

Just over fifty years ago, Prime Minister Macmillan made an extensive tour of Africa, culminating in his ‘wind of change’ speech in Cape Town, 1960. This article traces Macmillan's progress through Africa with particular emphasis on his intervention in South African politics. It offers a novel reading of the ‘wind of change’ speech, arguing that the message was far more conciliatory with respect to white South African interests than is usually assumed. Pragmatism rather than principle was always the prime consideration. Far from being cowed by Macmillan's oratory or his message, Verwoerd stood up to Macmillan and, at least in the eyes of his supporters, gave as good as he got. The shock of the ‘wind of change’ speech was more evident in Britain and in British settler regions of Africa than in South Africa. Macmillan's advisers had an inflated view of the import of the speech and in many ways misread Verwoerd's brand of Afrikaner nationalism. One of the consequences of the speech was to embolden Verwoerd politically, and to prepare him for the declaration of republican status in 1961 and departure from the commonwealth.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 1087 - 1114
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

This paper was written for a conference organized by Sarah Stockwell and Larry Butler on the fiftieth anniversary of the ‘wind of change’ address, held at the University of East Anglia, March 2010. Papers presented by Simon Ball, Stephen Howe, Joanna Lewis, Roger Louis, and Stuart Ward were especially illuminating for my purposes. I have since had very helpful comments from Hermann Giliomee, Alex Mouton, Rob Skinner, Andrew Thompson, Richard Whiting, and the anonymous reviewers for the Historical Journal.

References

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3 Cape Times, 23 Oct. 1957.

4 Hendrik Verwoerd, academic, newspaper editor, and politician (1901–66), became prime minister of South Africa in 1958, having previously served as minister of native affairs. He elevated apartheid into a full-fledged philosophy in 1959 as he laid out a strategy for giving ‘self-government’ to newly created ethnic ‘homelands’.

5 Thorpe, D. R., Supermac: the life of Harold Macmillan (London, 2010), pp. 453, 457–8Google Scholar; The National Archives (TNA), CAB 129/101, dispatch by John Maud, 18 Feb. 1960, in ‘Prime minister's African tour January–February’, p. 159.

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18 Guardian, 23 Jan. 1960.

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20 TNA, CAB 195/18, cabinet secretary notebooks, extract from cabinet meeting, 16 Feb. 1960. My thanks to Tessa Stirling for extracts from cabinet minutes and other material in TNA.

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32 Hunt, On the spot, p. 112; ‘Letter from DWS Hunt (CRO) to Sir A. Clutterbuck giving his personal impressions’ of Macmillan's Cape Town speech, 8 Feb. 1960, doc. 444, in R. Hyam and W. R. Louis, eds., The Conservative government and the end of empire, 1957–1964, Part II Series A Vol. 4 (London, 2000), p. 397; TNA, PREM 11/3071, D. Nokwe (ANC secretary-general) to Macmillan, 25 Jan. 1960, and Peter Brown (chair Liberal party) to Macmillan, 26 Jan. 1960.

33 TNA, CAB 129/101, ‘Prime minister's Africa tour’, pp. 129, 150–2; TNA, PREM 11/3071, J. B. Johnston to high commissioner, 23 Jan. 1960, Macmillan to D. Nokwe, 4 Feb. 1960; Maud to Bligh, 31 Jan. 1960.

34 Sampson, Mandela, p. 129.

35 TNA, PREM 11/3073, ‘South Africa fortnightly summary, 27th January to 9th February, 1960’, confidential savingram no. 26 from UK high commission, South Africa, to Commonwealth Relations Office, 11 Feb. 1960, and telegram no. 89, ‘Reactions to prime minister's visit’ (confidential) 16 Feb. 1960; ‘Letter from DWS Hunt Clutterbuck’, doc. 444, in Hyam and Louis, eds., The Conservative government, pp. 397–8.

36 Times, ‘Lord Redcliffe-Maud’ (obituary), 5 Feb. 1982.

37 Hyam, Britain 's declining empire, p. 258. The senior nationalist leader Paul Sauer regarded Maud as a constant source of tension during his time as British high commissioner and found him antagonistic towards Afrikaners. See de Villiers, Dirk en Johanna, Paul Sauer (Cape Town, 1977), pp. 128–9Google Scholar. Also Bellwood, W. A., South African backdrop (Cape Town, 1969), p. 162Google Scholar. I am grateful to Alex Mouton and David Scher for these sources.

38 TNA, PREM 11/3073, ‘Note for the record’, by Tim Bligh, 15 Dec. 1959.

39 Sampson, Mandela, p. 128.

40 Sampson, Macmillan, p. 186; Baker, ‘Macmillan's “wind of change” tour’, pp. 177–9; Hunt, On the spot, p. 116; Oxford dictionary of national biography, entries on Brook, Hunt, Maud; TNA, PREM 11/3073, Home to Macmillan, 9 Dec. 1959.

41 Hyam, Britain 's declining empire, p. 249.

42 www.info.gov.za/events/2010/sona_background.htm.

43 Illustrated London News, 2 Feb. 1960.

44 Macmillan's use of his own family ancestry had another purpose: while counting himself as a Scot, he noted that his mother was American, and he likened the puritan influence on the United States to South Africa. He was evidently sending out a message, to an American audience, that he was personally keen to cultivate the ‘special relationship’.

45 Edward Pearce, ‘Last echo of empire’ obituary, Julian Amery, Guardian, 4 Sept. 1996; Ball, ‘Banquo's ghost’.

46 TNA, PREM 11/3073, Brook to Macmillan, 3 Mar. 1960. Lady Churchill disagreed with Winston but thought it ‘impolitic’ to support Brook because ‘Winston always thinks of me as a crypto-Socialist.’

47 This did not prevent Selwyn Lloyd calling his black Labrador ‘Sambo’. See Thorpe, Supermac, p. 525.

48 TNA, PREM 11/3073, Brook to Macmillan, 3 Mar. 1960.

49 Ball, ‘Banquo's ghost’, pp. 84, 85.

50 S. J. Ball, ‘Macmillan, the second world war and the empire’, in R. Aldous and S. Lee, eds., Harold Macmillan: aspects of a political life (Basingstoke, 1999), p. 174.

51 TNA, PREM 11/3073, Brook to Macmillan, 3 Mar. 1960.

52 Evans, H., Downing Street diary: the Macmillan years, 1957–1963 (London, 1981), p. 102Google Scholar. Macmillan added: ‘Of course, they would have to accept the really talented African’, leaving Evans to wonder how the demand for political rights by the ‘talented African’ would be met.

53 TNA, CAB 195/18, extract from cabinet secretary notebooks from cabinet meeting on 16 Feb. 1960.

54 Verwoerd's ultra-loyal private secretary, Fred Barnard, was enraged by Macmillan's failure to supply his boss with an advance copy and regarded the speech as an insult. ‘The speech occupied nearly ten pages; ten pages of silken, smooth-tongued, cold and calculated insults of courteously phrased, remorseless condemnation of the country whose guest he was.’ Barnard, F., Thirteen years with Verwoerd (Johannesburg, 1967), pp. 62, 63Google Scholar.

55 Cape Times, 4 Feb. 1960.

56 Ibid., letter to the editor.

57 Die Burger, 4 Feb. 1960.

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59 Brand Fourie, ‘Buitelandse sake onder Dr Verwoerd’, in W. J. Verwoerd, ed., Verwoerd: Só onthou ons hom (Pretoria, 2001), p. 130; also C. Boshoff, ‘Mentor’, in ibid., p. 201.

60 TNA, PREM 11/3073, ‘South Africa fortnightly summary, 27th January to 9th February, 1960’, confidential savingram no. 26 from UK high commission, South Africa, to Commonwealth Relations Office, 11 Feb. 1960, p. 2.

61 D. M. Scher, ‘1948–1966’, in B. J. Liebenberg and S. B. Spies, eds., South Africa in the twentieth century (Pretoria, 1993), pp. 367–8; Kenney, H., Architect of apartheid: H. F .Verwoerd – an appraisal (Johannesburg, 1980), p. 179Google Scholar; De Villiers, Sauer, p. 128.

62 Contact, 20 Feb. 1960. The editor of Contact sent a telegram to Macmillan immediately after the delivery of his speech, calling it ‘historic’ and congratulating him for speaking ‘for the human race and for all the best in British and South African traditions and history’.

63 Cape Times, 4 Feb. 1960; see also Star, 3 Feb. 1960.

64 Rand Daily Mail, 4 Feb. 1960.

65 Contact, 20 Feb. 1960, ‘Justus’.

66 Peter Brown, ‘Apartheid isolated’, Contact, 5 Mar. 1960. TNA, CAB 134/1555, confidential telegram no. 89 from Commonwealth Relations Office to the Prime Minister's Office, 16 Feb. 1960, made the point that the United Party line was ‘to welcome speech warmly as rebuff for nationalists while ignoring its implications for themselves’.

67 Guardian, 29 Jan. 1960; Star, 3 Feb. 1960. ANC leaders Duma Nokwe and Alfred Nzo issued a circular instructing supporters to organize ten-strong groups of women protesters bearing placards at events where Macmillan was likely to appear. Suggested slogans included ‘We have never had it so bad’ and ‘Meet our leaders too and hear our side.’ Circular signed by Duma Nokwe and Alfred Nzo in TNA, PREM, 11/3071.

68 Sampson, Mandela, p. 129; At Westminster Hall on 11 July 1996, Mandela said: ‘We are in the Houses in which Harold Macmillan worked – he who spoke in our own Houses of Parliament in Cape Town in 1960, shortly before the infamous Sharpeville Massacre, and warned a stubborn and race-blinded white oligarchy in our country that “the wind of change is blowing through this continent”.’ www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/1996/sp960711.html.

69 Contact, 20 Feb. 1960; Benson, Mary, South Africa: the struggle for a birthright (Harmondsworth, 1966), p. 220Google Scholar; TNA, PREM 11/3071, circular signed by Nokwe and Nzo.

70 TNA, PREM 11/3073, Maud to Macmillan, 3 Feb. 1960.

71 Hunt, On the spot, pp. 117–18; cf. ‘Letter from DWS Hunt (CRO) to Sir A Clutterbuck’, in Hyam and Louis, eds., The Conservative government, p. 396.

72 Star, 4 Feb. 1960.

73 Worsthorne, P., Tricks of memory: an autobiography (London, 1993), p. 195Google Scholar. Worsthorne – life-long conservative and empire sympathizer – was appalled at the professional irresponsibility of his colleagues for failing to engage with Afrikaner journalists. He was left with ‘egg on my face’ as the only foreign reporter to have underplayed the sensational character of the speech. In a personal interview with a ‘serene’ Verwoerd the day after the speech, he was advised to inform Macmillan that the wind of change was blowing through Britain rather than Africa.

74 Cape Times, 4 Feb. 1960.

75 Die Burger, 4 Feb. 1960. Neither Piet Cillé, editor of Die Burger, nor Schalk Pienaar, its parliamentary correspondent, were favourably disposed to Verwoerd and both showed a considerable measure of journalistic independence. The political events of 1960 increased their doubts about the direction of Verwoerdian apartheid. See e.g. Mouton, Alex, Voorlooper: die lewe van Schalk Pienaar (Cape Town, 2002), pp. 37–9, 40–1Google Scholar.

76 TNA, PREM 11/3073, confidential telegram 89, ‘Reactions to prime minister's visit’, 16 Feb. 1960. The interpretation was that Die Transvaler might have been instructed by Verwoerd to remain non-committal until he had more time to gauge reaction to Macmillan's speech, whereas Die Burger was taking the lead in ‘kite flying’.

77 Die Transvaler, 4 Feb. 1960 (editorial); Cape Times, 4 Feb. 1960.

78 Die Burger, 4 Feb. 1960; ‘Letter from DWS Hunt (CRO) to Sir A. Clutterbuck’, 8 Feb. 1960, in Hyam and Louis, eds., The Conservative government, pp. 397–8.

79 Die Burger, 4 Feb. 1960. Similarly, Die Transvaler, 4 Feb. 1960, reported the two speeches alongside one another in the inside pages.

80 Die Burger (editorial), 5 Feb.1960.

81 Conversation between Sauer and Macmillan was strained. Mrs Sauer was irritated by Mrs Macmillan for waving at coloured pedestrians as their car sped by.

82 Illustrated London News, 20 Feb. 1960.

83 Star, 4 Feb. 1960.

84 Cape Argus, 4 Feb. 1960.

85 Die Transvaler, 22 Mar. 1960.

86 H. Macmillan, The Macmillan diaries: premiership, 1957–1966, ii:Prime minister and after, 1957–1966, ed. P. Catterall (Basingstoke, 2011), 2 Feb. 1960, p. 268.

87 Macmillan, Pointing the way, p. 152.

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89 TNA, PREM 11/3073, Home to Macmillan, 9 Dec. 1959, containing Baring's views.

90 Maud, J. P. R., City government: the Johannesburg experiment (Oxford, 1938), p. 224Google Scholar. This wide-ranging – but not much used – text is a landmark local history. Maud tutored on the Oxford Colonial Administrative Services course from 1937 to 1939.

91 Extracts from Maud's valedictory dispatch to Lord Home as high commissioner and ambassador in Hyam and Louis, eds., The Conservative government, doc. 462, ‘Review of the problems of South Africa and British policy’, 14 May 1963, p. 455.

92 Times, 8 Feb. 1960.

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95 See e.g. Eisenberg, ‘The Commonwealth Conference’, p. 59; Guardian, 21 Jan. 1960.

96 Cape Argus, 23 Nov. 1960 (editorial), 16 Jan. 1961 (editorial).

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100 Berridge, G., Economic power in Anglo-South African diplomacy: Simonstown, Sharpeville and after (London, 1981), pp. 33 and ff, 104–7, 137 and ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a contemporary statement of the potential economic pitfalls for South Africa in its loss of commonwealth membership, see e.g. ‘The commonwealth: a South African view’, Round Table, 50 (1960), pp. 365–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; TNA, PREM 11/3073, ‘Note for the record’ by Tim Bligh, 14 Dec. 1959.

101 Macmillan, Macmillan diaries, ii, 1 Jan. 1960 and 23 Mar. 1960, pp. 267, 281.

102 Times, 25 Mar. 1960.

103 ‘Cabinet conclusions’, doc. 448, in Hyam and Louis, eds., The Conservative government, pp. 404–6.

104 Macmillan, Pointing the way, p. 169.

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106 Berridge, Economic power, p. 114.

107 Sampson, Macmillan, p. 192.

108 ‘“Note of a discussion between the prime minister and Dr Verwoerd” in Cape Town: minute by Macmillan’, doc. 443, in Hyam and Louis, eds., The Conservative government, pp. 292–4. See also Bellwood, South African backdrop, p. 160.

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110 Cape Argus, 20 Mar. 1961; Die Transvaler, 21 Mar. 1960.

111 Kenney, Verwoerd, p. 206; ‘South Africa departs’, Round Table, 51 (1961), pp. 237–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 238.

112 Sampson, Macmillan, ch. 11; Thorpe, Supermac, p. 463.

113 Sampson, Macmillan, p. 210.

114 Reynolds, D., Summits: six meetings that shaped the twentieth century (London, 2008), p. 7Google Scholar.

115 TNA, CAB 129/101, ‘Prime minister's African tour’, pp. 137 and ff.

116 TNA, PREM 11/3072, summary of discussions on 2 Feb. 1960, between Macmillan and Verwoerd on United Nations: ‘Prime Minister warned Union that we might not be able to continue to support them on this [apartheid] but might have to abstain.’