July 2012 A monthly sitrep for the Rhodesian Services Association Incorporated Registered under the 2005 Charities Act in New Zealand number CC25203 Registered as an Incorporated Society in New Zealand number 2055431 PO Box 13003, Tauranga 3141, New Zealand. Web: www.rhodesianservices.org Secretary’s e-mail
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[email protected] Phone +64 7 576 9500 Fax +64 7 576 9501 To view all previous publications go to our Archives Greetings, The press is one of the biggest controllers of our modern lives; they influence everything from the change of governments to who plays in a sports team. The press played a great part in how Rhodesia was perceived by the outside world. Criticism of the founder of Rhodesia is not hard to find if you search the internet. Very little positive writing is ever seen nowadays about Cecil John Rhodes. Negative reporting will undoubtedly alter our perceptions and if something is repeated often enough it will become accepted as the truth, especially if someone puts it up on Wikipedia where anyone can write anything they like with little recourse to factual material sometimes. So it is with this in mind that I prepared this month’s Editorial. Recently I was sent a book entitled ‘Scouting on Two Continents’ by Major Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO, and Chief of Scouts under Lord Roberts. It was edited and arranged by Mary Everett and published in 1926. Burnham was clearly a man who led a very full and fascinating life and it was only with a quantity of persuasion that he agreed to work with Mary Everett to have his reminiscences recorded.