Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd

COLONIAL SECRETARY IN TROUBLE:

Born Nov. 18, 1904, son of a minor Lowland laird.

Appearance: Dark, handsome, and so tall--6 ft. 6 in.--that Africans call him "Bwana Kilimanjaro!'''

Education: Christ Church, Oxford, where he won the presidency of the Oxford Union debating society, co-founded the university Conservative Club. In 1929, aged 25, was defeated by Socialist in a hopeless try for a Welsh mining-district seat, went on debating tour of 48 U.S. campuses, where he good-naturedly upbraided Americans for having pulled out of the Empire.

Political Career: Elected to Parliament in 1931 for a Bedfordshire seat that he has held ever since. As elegant backbencher he praised Franco, Mussolini and Hitler, joined the Friends of Franco, and overenthusiastically defended Munich ("Hitler could absorb Czechoslovakia and Britain could remain secure"). When Churchill replaced Chamberlain and obviously had little relish for Lennox-Boyd's views, he joined the coastal navy, but continued to show up in the House of Commons every time his escort vessel touched a Channel port. He caught the eye of the late Oliver Stanley, an imperialist Tory who was rethinking Britain's colonial position. Mellowed and increased in wisdom by this friendship, he won Stanley's support, became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aircraft Production.

Postwar Career: When Churchill and the Conservatives regained power in 1951, became No. 2 man at Colonial Office under heavy-handed Oliver Lyttelton; in 1954 became Colonial Secretary himself.

Personal Life: In 1938 married Lady Patricia Guinness of the wealthy brewing family, and honeymooned in Addis Ababa, which Mussolini's forces had captured. A non-practicing lawyer, he has an income from investments of more than $50,000 a year; his wife's is even higher. A stranger to all sports, he superintends a four-man gardening crew at his Bedfordshire estate, grows flowers in the courtyard of his Belgravia house. Colonials of all creeds, colors and classes stream in to the Lennox-Boyds' frequent house parties.

Views & Policies: Loves his job, and has turned down a better one (Defense) to keep it. Has outgrown, though he has not found it necessary to repudiate, his earlier views, has won the confidence of many Commonwealth figures as an administrator of liberal intentions. His parliamentary manner is languid, sophisticated, earnest. Inheriting many messes, he has cleaned up some, e.g., the reinstatement of the exiled Kabaka of Buganda. Having fostered West Indian federation, Malayan self-rule, Gold Coast nationhood and Maltese integration, he has run into deep difficulty over Cyprus and Singapore, where his troubles are increased by the dictates of imperial defense.

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