ANTI-BRITISH POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 258, 30 October 1926, Page 14

ANTI-BRITISH POLICY.

THE DUTCHMAN FAVOURED.

SOUTH AFRICAN CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS TO BLOCK PROMOTION. Civil servants in South Africa are beginning to suspect that it is the policy of the South African Government to keep Britishers out of the Civil Service. It is felt by some that the retrospective law which makes promotion contingent upon proficiency in Afrikaans is being used as a weapon against the Britisher in the service. All the Durban candidates who entered for the June examinations in Afrikaans were gazetted as having failed. The announcement created consternation in Civil Service circles. An extraordinary and significant feature of the results was that one of the candidates who "failed" was Dutch-born and well educated—but he had an English name. There were thirty candidates, and the majority had been coached by private tutors. Seven or eight sat for the third or qualifying grade, and the fact that they all failed was regarded as not being so surprising as the wholesale failures in the preliminary grade, which was looked upon as easy. There were only three passes in the examination held in the previous November, but neither teachers nor students were prepared for : 100 per cent failures in th June exami ' nation.

One of the luckless candidates, in a newspaper interview, gave it as his opinion that the results had strengthened the impression amongst English-speaking Civil servants that they would never be given a chance to pass.

"Camouflage it as they will, the present Government cannot hide the fact that their policy is to keep Britishers out of the Civil Service," said the canadidate. "Even if we pass the examination in ' Afrikaans, we have little faith. Another excuse to keep us back would probably be found."

There is said to be a good, deal of indignation amongst English-speaking men in the service, and it is openly stated that if there was not so much to lose several men who can speak Afrikaans, and yet cannot satisfy the Government examiners, would leave the service immediately. One man who had failed three or four times did resign.

There is another complaint amongst British Civil servants. It is that whenever a vacancy occurs in Natal, someone —preferably a Dutchman—is transferred from the Transvaal or the Free State, and if a Britisher happens to apply for the vacant post in either of these provinces the Government points out that as it is in a Dutch-speaking district fluency in Afrikaans is the first essential.