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Southern Rhodesia Liberal Party
The Southern Rhodesian Liberal Party was founded and led by Jacob Smit in 1939. It is thought that it was largely since Prime Minister Sir Godfrey Martin Huggins , leader of the United Party (UP, later the United Federal Party) failed to include Smit (who was Minister of Finance) in the exclusive WWII Defence Committee, Smit split from the UP. Notwithstanding its name (the reasons for which are somewhat unclear), the party was, in fact, pronouncedly illiberal. In his A History of Southern 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.’ ” It was to become one of the political precursors to the later Rhodesian Front (RF).
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