Decamping from Rhodesia

In 1966, L. Ron Hubbard traveled to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), planning to establish a strong Scientology presence there, or perhaps even a Scientology "homeland".

In 1966, knowing that the world would not go on forever without war, and knowing that it might be very advisable for us to have all of our materials in a safe repository, I went down to southern Africa in order to establish an area where this could be effected.

-L. Ron Hubbard, Ron's Jounal 67, a tape addressed to all staff and studens of Scientology organizations, 20 Septempter 1967.

However, the Rhodesian Ministry of Immigration elected not to renew Hubbard's residence permit and Hubbard was forced to leave the country abruptly after failing to ingratiate himself with the ruling powers.

U.S. Financier is refused Residence Permit
—told to leave by next Monday

The Chronicle, 14 July 1966

Salisbury, Wednesday. Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, the American financier recently involved in the purchase of the Bumi Hills Hotel and in a number of other big business deals in Rhodesia, has been refused permission to stay in the country and has until next Monday to leave.

Mr. Hubbard, founder of the controversial Scientology movement, has been told by the Ministry of Immigration that his temporary alien's residence permit will not be renewed, according to a spokesman for Mr. Hubbard. The spokesman said the permit would expire next Monday and Mr. Hubbard was expected to leave Rhodesia, probably for Britain, on Friday. His wife, Mary Sue, is not in Rhodesia at the moment.

Mr. Hubbard refused to talk to the press tonight and would make no comment on the situation. A Ministry of Immigration spokesman also refused to comment.

Mr. Hubbard arrived in Rhodesia earlier this year after being told by his doctor to leave Britain following his third attack of pneumonia. In May, together with two local business men, he bought the Bumi Hills Hotel on Lake Dariba. He also bought an interest in the holdings of Mr. John Plagis, a local property owner, and a holding company was being formed for them.

In addition, he said he had arranged the purchase of interests in a car sales and was considering financing several factories. Addressing a Que Que Rotary Club dinner this month, Mr. Hubbard said he was to start a business in Que Que.

Controversy

Explaining the Scientology movement recently, Mr. Hubbard said he had started a foundation in 1950, "to discover the true nature of man, and make the world a better place."

He call Scientology the philosophy of knowledge and said it would be used in Rhodesia to improve the ability of executives in his new companies and to better their administrative know-how. Scientology has aroused considerable controversy in Britain, the United States and other countries.

Contrary to Church of Scientology claims that Hubbard championed the cause of black Africans in southern Africa, author Paulette Cooper  reports a different situation in her book, The Scandal of Scientology  and indicates a possible reason that his residence permit was not renewed.

Hubbard has also been accused of getting entangled with politics while he was in Rhodesia, and, in fact, may have been barred from that country a few years ago. The Daily Mail in England reported that this occurred because the Rhodesian authorities believed he was using the political situation in that country to expand Scientology. At first no one complained: Hubbard had invested nearly $80,000 in Rhodesia; he bought a house for a reputed $40,000 and a hotel to "show his confidence in the country and its government" — although they were worthwhile investments for him, too, because Scientology was said to have taken in $25,000 in a city of only 45,000 whites.

But the Daily Mail reported that Hubbard allegedly alienated people by constantly praising Ian Smith, expressing his sympathy for the cause of the white Rhodesians, and exploiting racial prejudices (allegedly by saying that the Africans wouldn't qualify for membership in Scientology because their I.Q. was too low). Such statements, had they ever been widely circulated, would not have made Hubbard popular among Scientologists in America, since Hubbard's constant emphasis of "freedom" and "equality" has recruited a number of American Negroes to the organization.

Russell Miller, author of Bare-Faced Messiah , which was excerpted in the Sunday Times magazine (1987), also suggests this possibility.

On television, in newspaper interviews and in all his public pronouncements, Hubbard professed support for Ian Smith's government, although in private he thought Smith was a "nasty bit of work" who was incapable of leadership. Similarly he publicly espoused sympathy for the plight of the black majorities of both Rhodesia and South Africa, while privately admitting contempt for them. Blacks were so stupid, he told John McMaster, that they did not give a reading on an E-Meter .

At the beginning of July Hubbard was invited to address the Rotary Club in Bulawayo. He delivered a rambling, hectoring speech telling the assembled businessmen how they should run their country, their businesses and their lives, and when it was reported in the local newspaper it appeared to be faintly anti-Rhodesian.

A couple of days later, Hubbard received a letter from the Department of Immigration telling him that his applications for an extension to his alien's temporary residence permit had been unsuccessful: "This means that you will be required to leave Rhodesia on or before July 18, 1966."

Hubbard was stunned. Up to that moment he had believed himself to be not just a prominent personality in Rhodesia, but a popular one. He asked friends in the Rhodesian Front party to make representations on his behalf to the prime minister, but to no avail.

John McMaster — originally proclaimed Scientology's first Clear  but later declared  — suggests a more pedestrian reason Hubbard was not allowed to stay in Rhodesia. From Stewart Lamont's Religion Inc., Harrap: London, 1986, pg. 54:

McMaster remembers a heavy-handed attempt by Hubbard to influence Prime Minister Ian Smith while he was living in Alexander Park in Salisbury. Ron had his chauffeur drive him out in his yellow Pontiac with two bottles of pink champagne, which he had to leave with the butler because Mrs Smith would not receive him. "There are things like protocol, you know, just general decency," says McMaster. "You don't just barge in on somebody like a tramp steamer misdocking. All these nuances of understanding, I began to realize, he didn't have." With some distaste John McMaster adds, "He told me Ian Smith was going to be shot because he was a 'Suppressive'. I now have no comment. But the real reason that Hubbard was kicked out of Rhodesia was that his cheques bounced."