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William John Harper (born 22 July 1916) was a politician, general contractor and fighter pilot who served as a Cabinet minister in Rhodesia (or Southern Rhodesia) between 1962 and 1968, and signed that country's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain in 1965. Born and raised in Calcutta, the son of an old and prominent Anglo-Indian merchant family, Harper joined the Royal Air Force in 1937 and served as an officer throughout the Second World War, fighting in the Battle of Britain, south-east Asia, India and North Africa. He was appalled by Britain's granting of independence to India in 1947, and emigrated to Rhodesia on retiring from the air force with the rank of wing commander two years later. Harper contended that British rule in the subcontinent should never have ended, and took a similar stance on his adopted homeland, reportedly declaring that it, South Africa and the neighbouring Portuguese territories would "be under white rule forever".〔 He entered politics with the Dominion Party in 1958 and became Minister of Water Development and Roads in the Rhodesian Front (RF) government in 1962. The head of a far-right group within the RF, he called for Rhodesia to abolish black representation in parliament and adopt South African-style apartheid. He became one of the main agitators within the government for a UDI if Britain did not grant independence with white Rhodesians still in control. When Prime Minister Winston Field resigned in 1964, Harper was a front-runner to succeed him, but lost out to Ian Smith, who moved him to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Each breakdown or setback during the early years of Smith's premiership prompted press speculation that Harper might replace him. Observers in the United Kingdom, including the Prime Minister Harold Wilson, perceived Harper's rightist faction to wield considerable influence over Smith's decision-making in the period before and directly following UDI, a view shared by Harper himself. In 1966, when Smith brought a working document back from the HMS ''Tiger'' talks with Wilson, Harper led opposition to the terms in Cabinet, contributing to their rejection. Harper resigned from the Rhodesian Front in July 1968, soon after Smith dismissed him from the Cabinet, reportedly because Harper had had an extramarital affair with a British agent. He subsequently became a vocal critic of the Prime Minister, greeting each step Smith made towards settlement with black nationalists during the Bush War with public indignation. Harper returned to politics in 1974, when he set up the United Conservative Party to oppose Smith in that year's election, but his party failed to win a seat. By the time majority rule began in Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979, following the Internal Settlement of the previous year, Harper had left for South Africa. ==Early life and military service== William John Harper was born on 22 July 1916 in Calcutta, British India, scion of an old and prominent Anglo-Indian merchant family that had been based in the subcontinent for generations, working with the East India Company during the 18th and 19th centuries.〔 He grew into a short but tough man who spoke with clipped diction. Nathan Shamuyarira wrote of him in 1966 that "his tight mouth rarely relaxes into a smile, so ... he seems always on the point of losing his temper". Harper joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1937, and was commissioned with the rank of acting pilot officer on 5 September. After war broke out in 1939 he was promoted to flying officer on 12 February 1940; he received the war substantive rank of flight lieutenant exactly a year later. During 1940 he was one of "The Few"—the Allied pilots of the Battle of Britain, in which he flew with No. 17 Squadron and was wounded in action. He was seconded to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in September 1941 to command No. 453 Squadron RAAF, a fighter squadron then based at Singapore. No. 453 Squadron suffered high losses during the Japanese invasion of Malaya in December 1941 and January 1942, and was disbanded in Australia in March 1942. Harper then commanded No. 135 Squadron RAF in India from April 1942. In January 1943 he took command of No. 92 (East India) Squadron RAF in North Africa,〔 and received the rank of temporary squadron leader. He was transferred to England in September 1943 and commanded the University Air Squadron at Leeds until 1944. He remained with the RAF following the end of hostilities.〔 Harper was appalled when Britain made India independent in 1947; he believed that the British government had unnecessarily caved in to Indian nationalist demands and should have continued ruling India indefinitely. He retained this view for years afterwards.〔 He retired from the RAF in April 1949, keeping the rank of wing commander. The same year he emigrated to Southern Rhodesia, a British colony in southern Africa that had been self-governing since 1923, and settled in Gatooma, where he farmed, mined and set up an earth-moving contractor's business. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Harper (Rhodesian politician)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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