AFRICA RACE PROBLEM

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27636, 18 April 1955, Page 11

AFRICA RACE PROBLEM

“Burning Hatred Of Whites”

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 16. A burning hatred of the whites was growing rapidly in South Africa with the possibility that it would culminate in a violent outburst within the next five to 10 years, Mr F. A. W. Lucas, a South African author and a former Transvaal Supreme Court Judge, said in a letter to the “New York Times” today.

The newspaper said that Mr Lucas was to visit the United States soon. Writing from Mr Lucas said: “South Africa is a fearridden country. The fear is very general that the blacks, if they are not kept under control, will in time drive the whites out of Africa, and in any event will take their jobs and lower the standard of living. “It is on our land system that the policy of apartheid must, I believe, inevitably founder. The natives who are about three-quarters of our total population, have only one-ninth of the land. With total apartheid "they would need two-thirds at least.” Mr Lucas said that in 1936 Parliament authorised the purchase of enough land to bring up the total area to be available for occupation by natives to 13 per cent. But the white land owners refused to sell much more than half of what was necessary for this.

“It is not surprising that there is growing rapidly a burning hatred of the whites. That this will culminate in the immediate future in a violent, outburst is unlikely,” Mr Lucas said. “But in these days of speedy changes he would be greatly daring who would venture to assert that such a thing could not happen in the next 10 or even in the next five years.”