Southern Rhodesia Liberal Party
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox political party
| name = Southern Rhodesia Liberal Party
| native_name =
| logo =
| leader =
| founded = 1943
| dissolved = 1950s
| predecessor =
| successor =
| merged = Rhodesian Front
| headquarters = Salisbury
| membership =
| ideology = Conservatism
White minority interests
| position = Right-wing
| national =
| colours =
| seats1_title =
| seats1 =
| seats2_title =
| seats2 =
| symbol =
| colorcode = {{party color|Southern Rhodesia Liberal Party}}
| country = Southern Rhodesia
}}
{{Politics of Rhodesia}}
The Southern Rhodesian Liberal Party was a political party in Southern Rhodesia, founded in 1943 by Jacob Smit (1881–1959), the former United Party (UP) Minister of Finance. It was dissolved in the 1950s.
History
It is thought that Smit split from the UP largely because Prime Minister Sir Godfrey Martin Huggins had failed to include him in the exclusive Second World War Defence Committee.{{cite book |title=Huggins of Rhodesia |first=Lewis |last=Gann |page=150 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1964 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4V8_AAAAMAAJ}} Smit then set up the Liberal Party to base their policy upon that of the recently dissolved Reform Party.{{cite book |title=Huggins of Rhodesia |first=Lewis |last=Gann |page=165 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1964 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4V8_AAAAMAAJ}}
In his A History of Rhodesia, Robert Blake writes that Smit's party, "in accordance with the Rhodesian tradition of adopting the most misleading political nomenclature possible, called themselves 'Liberals.'" The party was, in fact, pronouncedly illiberal, and attempted to unite conservative, non-trade union opposition to the UP while opposing government economic regulation and the advancement of Black political interests. An English-born Member of the Southern Rhodesian House of Assembly noted that "The Liberal Party were not Liberal...".{{cite book |year=2023 |title=Garfield Todd: The End of the Liberal Dream in Rhodesia |page=31 |first=Susan |last=Woodhouse |publisher=African Books Collective |isbn=9781779223241}} The Southern Rhodesian Chief Medical Officer Andrew Paton Martin joined the Liberal Party but due to ill-health, was unable to actively partake in politics.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.bmj.com/content/1/5168/282|title=Obituary|date=23 January 1960|journal=Br Med J|volume=1|issue=5168|pages=282–284|accessdate=20 June 2025|via=BMJ|doi=10.1136/bmj.1.5168.282|pmid=13856738|pmc=1966259 }}
The Liberal Party did well in the 1946 general election, winning 12 out of 30 seats in the Southern Rhodesia Legislative Assembly, which forced the United Party to govern as a minority government. But in the 1948 general election it won only five seats and its support declined subsequently,{{cite web |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/274341740 |title=Liberals Lose In S. Rhodesia |via=Trove |work=Sydney Daily Mirror |date=1948-09-17 |accessdate=2025-06-20}} despite the future Prime Minister Ian Smith being elected as one of their members.{{cite book |page=3 |title=Counter-Insurgency in Rhodesia |first=Jakkie |last=Cillers |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=9781317499251}} It was to become one of the political precursors to the future Rhodesian Front (RF) party.{{Harvnb
|Blake
|1978
|page=194}}
See also
References
;References
{{reflist}}
;Bibliography
- {{cite book|title=A History of Rhodesia|last=Blake|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert Blake, Baron Blake|location=New York|publisher=Knopf|year=1978|isbn=978-0-394-48068-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofrhodesi00blak}}
{{Zimbabwean political parties}}
Category:1943 establishments in Southern Rhodesia
Category:Conservative parties in Zimbabwe
Category:Defunct political parties in Zimbabwe
Category:Political parties in Rhodesia
Category:Political parties established in 1943
Category:Protestant political parties
Category:White nationalism in Zimbabwe