"COLOUR" PREJUDICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 193, 15 August 1936, Page 1

"COLOUR" PREJUDICE.

SOUTH AFRICANS AND

NATIVES.

SHIP PASSENGERS' QTTARREL. (By ISABEL M. CLUETT.) The decision of the Arawa Maoris to decline to meet the Springboks either socially or on the field of play seems the wisest and most dignified resolution they could make in face of the stubborn prejudice of the South Africans, whose racial intolerance of all dark-skinned peoples seems to be bred in the bone and to render them incapable of distinguishing between the lowest type of kaffir in the kraal and our own highly endowed and independent native race.

When I was in South Africa for a time on my way home to Europe some years ago, I came across this instinctive antipathy to the native, a kind of highhanded bullying attitude which has its basic cause in fear, however much the white man may seek to disguise it. Many do not attempt to disguise it, but frankly admit that it is only this assumption of unquestioned power which keeps the native under, for, they, say, once let the blacks realise their enormous preponderance in numbers over the whites and the steam-roller power this gives them, and the whole country would become a shambles for the European settlers. To combat this awful possibility it is said to be necessary to treat the "niggers" as something so inferior, so far beneath the lordly white man as to cow them with a sense of their own worthlessness in regard to their masters, in -short to inspire them with an inferiority complex so complete that they do not even question it. Many white men deplore the fact that the law no longer allows the whipping of native "boys" by their masters for the more serious misdemeanours; the sjambok they claim was their most effective weapon, and the one most dreaded by the "boys." •

The South African's View. "If," said a South African to .me, after describing some rather horrible incidents in the association of the black man with the white in his adopted country, "we were to treat our niggers as you treat yours, we'd have them lolling about our drawing rooms, kissing our women and expecting to be asked to join our clubs and attend our social functions."

"Our Maoris are not niggers," I objected, "and you must see for yourself the difference. The Maori is a white man for all practical purposes." He shrugged. "A nigger's a nigger," he said stubbornly, "whether his skin is brown or black, or 'white, pure white inside' like.Gunga Din; I wouldn't trust one of the beggars."

So that was that. This conversation was the sequel to a happening on board one of the liners which was •on its way to England via the South African ports. Looking • up my diary I see a note: "Great 'bust-up' among the Maoris, resenting a remark .made' by 'a South African passenger, a woman who referred to them as niggers. Captain was calied in to restore order and severely'censured the woman."

This was a brief and bald rec.ord of a really very unpleasant incident which might have ended seriously. A concert party of Maoris, under the leadership of a" well-known native "prophet," was on its-way to ■ Europe ana hp<l bee®- the

life and soul of the ship, playing its band for our dances, giving occasional concerts in the saloon, taking part in deck games and sports, and as usual winning the majority of the events, to the sporting satisfaction of the New Zealand and Australian passengers. Everyone was happy and friendly; the question of dark skin versus white never arose; we were all fellowpassengers at sports time.

With tne arrival at the African ports and the joining of the ship by a large party of South Africans a change came over the spirit of the scene. The South Africans were chilly and aloof, a few of them joining in the sports halfheartedly and then lodging a protest against the management of the sports committee and the distribution of the prizes. At once it became apparent what was the matter; they resented the fact that the Maoris or "natives" were carrying off most of the prizes. It was bad for the prestige of the white man.

Passengers' Petition. The secretary of the Maori troupe, in a dignified, speech one dinner hour, suggested the Maoris' withdrawal from alf"sporting events, as it seemed that their participation was giving offence to a certain section of the passengers. A passengers' meeting was convened, at which a resolution was passed asking the Maoris to reconsider their determination to withdraw; the petition was signed by over 300 passengers—hut not by one South African —and the Maoris, no doubt feeling a bit above themselves, agreed to take part in the sports as usual. This further incensed the South African contingent, and at a presentation of prizes on deck group of them collected, in order, it seemed, to pass contemptuous remarks among themselves, which culminated in the deliberately audible words uttered by a middle-aged woman, who said scornfully: "The natives have won all the prizes, of course, but, then, we have never been used to competing with

niggers." , x That remark was like a spark to gunpowder among the other passengers. Many of the hotheads, women as well as men, crowded round the South African group with hisses and cries of "Shame!" and a furious exchange of personalities flew back and forth between the two factions The woman responsible for the remark attempted to justify it by further reference to "blacks," but her VOIC3 was drowned an indignant cries. If anything, the Australians were more incensed than the New Zealanders, or at least were more outspoken about it.

Frightening Spectacle. Up to then the Maoris themselves had stood aloof and dignified, taking no par in the dispute, but suddenly a strange procession appeared at the head oftc companionway leading from the Maori quarters. Amid shouts of laughter and cheers and encouraging cries the procession advanced, about a dozen y ou "° Maoris dressed in swinging piopios, with feathers in their hair and meres in their upraised hands. On they came, dancing a kind of burlesque haka- with the traditional hideous grimaces and contortions of features and limbs so. familiar to the people of these islands. But to the South African matron whose deck chair the young native bucks surrounded, the swarthy contorted facps, the dark eyes rolling fiercely, the barbaric movements of the dance, the fierce cries and deep chanting of the powerful Maori voices were simply terrifying. bne probablv thought her last hour had come, that she had with her injudicious _ sneer provok id a "native rising^^whicb.m-her

own country was always the secret dread of the white population. In reality the mischievous Maoris, as was at once apparent to the New Zealanders and Australians, who enjoyed the joke, were singing an impromptu jeering sort of "pidgin" English-Maori' song directed at the trembling woman, her appearance, her manners, her works and her ways.

Finally the Maori secretary appeared and in his own tongue counselled the sportive young bucks to go away and leave the woman alone; with grins of delight at the success of their game, they withdrew a short distance and stood watching the progress of events, while the hysterical woman, turning furiously upon the secretary, exclaimed that she had been insulted in a British ship by "dirty natives" and continued with bitterness directed at her own countrymen, "if there was a gentleman on board I'd call upon him now to throw you overboard." The Maori secretary, a very grave and dignified gentleman, bowed courteously, and, though goaded into retaliation, did so with as much gentlemanly restraint as he could summon on such an occasion. "Madam," he said in his beautiful cultivated voice, "you are a woman and I can do nothing, but if my wife were on board I would call upon her to slap your face." For once he had rather lost his head, but a perfect gale of laughter broke out among the passengers friendly to the Maoris. The other contingent, however, deeming themselves freshly insulted, cried "Shame! Shame!" and in a moment there was a furious hubbub, the two factions joining issvie in a heated dispute.

The Captain's Ultimatum. Meanwhile the Maori secretary, calling together the young men of his party, withdrew, while a nervous passenger went flying along to the captain's cabin with the cry that he had. "better come on deck or there would be bloodshed between the South Africans and the Australians." The captain was having his afternoon "forty winks," and it was almost like leee majeste to disturb that. He arrived on deck red-faced and irascible, blinking the sleep out of his eyes, and, finding the Maoris, now in their European clothes, standing innocently on the deck and a heated mob of white passengers exchanging furious insults, he demanded an explanation in his best quarter-deck voice. He got it in at least a score of voices, and having disentangled the story to his own satisfaction he administered a stinging rebuke to the South Africans in general and the woman offender in particular. He said the Maoris were well-behaved and honoured guests at any of the ship's functions, that there had been peace and harmony on board before the South Africans arrived. He said he had the right, if the peace and harmony of his ship were interrupted, to put the offending passenger ashore at the next port, or to confine him or her to the cabin during the remainder of the voyage, and if he had any more of it he would do so. It was not until he had gone back to his cabin to resume his interrupted nap that the thunder-struck woman came out of her daze and buret into a furious complaint that it was a disgrace to find a British captain on a British ship who would uphold a pack of natives against a white woman.

So ended what came to be known as the "battle of the colours," and the South Africans spent the rest of the voyage in splendid isolation, but since that incident (on board a good ship which has since met its fate at the shipbreakers' hands) I find it easier to see both sides of the question.