S. AFRICA FIGHTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 170, 21 July 1941, Page 6

S. AFRICA FIGHTS

THE WILL TO WIN

BRAINS AND SPIRIT

LOYALTY OF THE BLACKS

(NO. III.) (By E. M. O'DOWD)

PRETORIA (S.A.), June 16

The flag of the Union of South Africa has been unfuiied on the battlefields of Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland with disastrous results to Italy. A threat to the British territories of Kenya, Nyasaland, Tanganyika, the Rhodesias and the Belgian Congo has been thrown back in Italy's face. Moving in a parallel strategy far to the south of the British Army in Libya and Cyrenaiea, the South African Army played a vital part in the liquidation of Italy's African empire. This achievement owes a great deal to history, a great deal to natural advantages, but it owes most to solid South African character inspired by the leadership of General Smuts. Quite simply, the will to fight for justice was there, and through every difficulty that will found a way. It is the heart and spirit of the thing, much more than its size, which makes it magnificent. One advantage drawn from history is that the South African people are accustomed to the idea of heavy odds. A century ago small groups of Boer pioneers, moving from the Cape to the interior, faced and defeated the Zulu hordes. The Boer Republics in 1899 cheerfully challenged the British Empire. The white people in the Union to-day are outnumbered four to one by the African tribes. Among the white people themselves the Englishspeaking section is outnumbered by the Afrikaans-speaking section. So the German faith in numbers is not a South African notion. South Africans have learnt to rely on brains and fighting spirit, and to leave the rest to the justice of their cause. Isolationists Were Strong Natural advantages consisted of a solid national economy, based on the gold mining industry and agriculture, plus distance from Europe, which gave time to prepare. When war came in 1939 nothing was ready. Worse than that, the people as a whole were caught in two minds. There was no active sympathy for Germany, for among the South African people—British and Dutch — German political methods have always been unpopular. But there was a great deal of isolationism. The Prime Minister at that time. General Hertzog, was essentially an isolationist. To a great extent he was mentally isolated in his life's work, which had been the evolution of the British Empire toward a concord of sovereign States. So in the onset of war he saw only a

golden opportunity finally to vindicate South Africa's constitutional independence over against Britain and the other Commonwealth States. He proposed that South Africa be neutral. He was credited by some people with an intention to declare war on Germany when he became convinced of an imminent threat to South Africa. However, his Cabinet fell. The people were sorry to part with him. The difference between his work for South Africa and General Smuts' work is this: while Hertzog was consolidating the South African people into a nation at home, Smuts was finding a place for that nation in the world. The work of each was complementary to the work of the other. From 1933 to 1939 they worked together in the same Cabinet, and together produced enough national unity to make a foundation for South Africa's great effort in the war. No More Quislings It is necessary to understand this, because Nazi propaganda proclaims that South Africa is hopelessly divided by the war. The Nazis thought they had a Quisling or two in South Africa. They may have had, but such real division as existed in 1939 is rapidly healing under the influence of Hitler's actions—a service that he has unconsciously rendered to freedom throughout the world. Europeans in South Africa number a little more than 2,000,000. But they have 6,000,000 black fellowcountrymen and women, upon whose broad shoulders most of the country's labour rests. The correct term for these descendants of the aboriginal tribes is the word Bantu —meaning black Africans as distinguished from people of coloured and other mixed blood. In South Africa's war effort, the Bantu are a mighty force. Their loyalty to the war effort is profound. By their unflagging labour and loyalty, they convert South Africa into a nation of more than 8,000,000 people. It is not an island of whites in a black ocean. That is the essential fact to grasp about South Africa to-day. National policy forbids the arming of the Bantu, but if the Union were invaded, and the worst came to the worst, they could be armed. They have a robust military tradition. The Zulu may justly look back at Chaka as the only black Napoleon the world ever knew. He has recently been compared with Hitler by a South African historian to the German's disadvantage. Thousands of Bantu are serving in the South African Army in noncombatant capacities. So are thousands of coloured men. Cape coloured men make fine soldiers, as anybody who has seen them taking field artillery into action can testify.— "Auckland Star" and N.A.N.A. (Concluded.)