SOUTH AFRICA NATAL WEIGHS THE PROS AND CONS OF SECESSION

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26832, 10 September 1952, Page 8

SOUTH AFRICA NATAL WEIGHS THE PROS AND CONS OF SECESSION

[From the Durban Correspondent of "The Timej”] (Reprinted by Arrangement)

The conference called by the Natal Provincial Council in JUnt to consider the province's attitude towards South African political problems is being held at Pietermaritzburg. It will consider with particular care the question whether the United Party, in collaboration with the Labour Party, can win the next South African General Election; for the conflicting answers being given to this question are causing divisions among the opponents of nationalism as to the most effective political strategy that the province Should adopt. The outcome of the election will necessarily have many consequences for the Commonwealth, Africa, and the western world; Natal is immediately and intimately concerned with the threat to the British. tradition and democratic government which a Nationalist victory at the polls would intensify.

Natal is the most politically united anti-Govetnment province in the Union, but is divided on this issue into two schools of thought. There are those who are prepared to support an active movement for secession from the Union now in the belief that the United Party cannot win the next election and because they are convinced that the goal of Nationalism is a despotic Afrikaner republic. Let us have done with this racial bitterness, they say; let us ensure that Natal remains a free and trustworthy member of the British Commonwealth. The Torch Commando is among the bodies which insist that “separate independent action by Natal must not be excluded as an ultimate possibility.” , There are others—and they are in the majority—who. being essentially at heart South Africans, assert that Natal would be betraying the real interests Of the country if it failed to give full support to the efforts of the United Front in the rest of the Union to wrest political power from the Nationalists, jn this attitude thev are logically correct. The Nationalists would win the next election easily If Natal were to withdraw from the Union, and anv active secessionist propaganda would seriously embarrass the United Party in the other provinces at this juncture. Mistaken Assumption

While this group is anxious to save the Union from disruption, it would be a mistake to assume that its members do not agree that circumstances may arise which may make it impossible for Natal to remain tied to an undemocratic and sectional reoubllc. Their view rather is that the crisis in South Africa is not now; they do not deny that there will be a crisis Should the United Party and its associates lose at the polls. There are also a growing number of Natalians who insist that It would be morally wrong for Natal to enter the next election unless It makes Its nosition unmistakably clear beforehand. Tn other words. Natal must state plainly that it will not tolerate State absolutism and republicanism. In the, event of political developments taking place along these lines it. will not consider itself committed to any course of future actioA by participation in a general election. Controversy has been heightened bv the publication of a document, drawn up by 12 well-known Natal businessmen. declaring that economically the province Is incapable of standin'’ alone. But in any case few people in Natal are dehberatcly set upon breaking up the Union. The vast majority want to preserve it, provided effective safeguards can be found to protect the tradi’ions and civil liberties of the people. The advantages of a cohesive South Africa are so great that few Natalians have anv active desire to part company with their Mlow countrymen. Tf support could be found in the other provinces for federation Natal would infinitely prefer such a form of political union to isolationism. But. the argument runs, if the choice is to be separatism within the Commonwealth as opposed to serfdom in « despotic Afrikaner republic Natal will

have no hesitation in choosing th* former. Bourtd up with the constitutional question is the problem of the relationship between White and Black. Natal, which is in the heart of the real Africa, has an African population of nearly 2 000,000, the majority of whom belong to the proud Zulu race. Yet, strangely enough, Natal's white population of 275,000 is not nearly as reactionary in its attitude towards the African as is the average white person in the other provinces. Natal's approach is, ih fact, much closer to that of Southern Rhodesia than to the generally accepted South African Standpoint. There is also an influential and Steadily growing school of thought in the province which believes the crucial struggle in South Africa to be not between Boer and Briton, monarchist and republican, but between a civilised and a medieval attitude of mind.

A Stumbling Block But while Natal could be persuaded to offer the African more generoul and fairer economic and political treatment, there is one stumbling block which, in existing circumstances. seems insurmountable. It » the Indian problem in this province. There are in Natal some 298,<W Asiatics and they are multiplying at almost double the pace of the European. While most white people of th# province are probably prepared to help promote the advancement of tn* African, they are united almost to a man in their opposition to improved political treatment for the Indian. This attitude is conditioned by an irrepressible fear that it is the longterm aim of the Indians to dominate the whole eastern littoral of tne African continent. The' astuteness or the Indian trader in business, ms untidy social habits, and his comparatively low standard of living are factors mainly responsible for tni. antagonism. The unreasonableness oi such generalisations may be condemned. but experience has show that they cannot be erased from u> European mind. , It should be remembered that one of the earliest actions taken by Naw when it received responsible govern ment towards the end of the W” century was to withhold the franchise from its Indian community. It did by securing the British Governmen consent to an enactment whichii it down that “no persons shall g qualified for the franchise m Haw who—not being of European origin are natives or descendents in the - ’ine of natives of countries which n not hitherto possessed elective presentative institutions unless t r first obtain an order from m Governor-in-Council exempting jn from the operation of this Act.

Unwavering Opposition . For more than 50 years, thereto** white opinion in Natal has been i . wavering in its opposition to the g of the franchise to the Asiatic munity. The fact that in recent y there has been rapid increase in 5 Indian population has rather than lessened the det ®H n th 9 tion of the white to P*®***? fo p ’ndian from gaining a political bold. . , Mats! The question of secession tor rw. is thus anything but a strai gh issue. Is it possible for Natal, .tail outside the Union to make con j to the Africans without also ext equal or greater con . cei on « Indians, who are admittedly . e higher civilised level tha ” Africans? There is no easy .» e f Yet in its present mood it is a which Natal is prenared to tnresn for itself rather than submit form of Doli-ical despotism the embodiment of presO Nationalism. . .. art Thus the present indication parthbt while Natal will probaW ticioate in the next general el*« " will be made clear that the P contin"ing narnership m tne n() . will depend upon whether there is anv further ’’’? der , , ?‘ n Union the principles upon which tne came into being.