Arrest In Cape Town

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 15

Arrest In Cape Town

(Rec. 7 p.m.) CAPE TOWN, Dec. 16. Dr. H. M. Moosa, a Johannesburg medical practitioner and former secretary of the South African Indian Congress, was arrested in Cape Town today on a charge of high treason as he was about to attend the wedding of his sister-in-law. Since December 5, a total of 150 people- of all races have now been arrested in South Africa on charges of high treason. Mr Patrick Duncan, son of a former Governor-General of South Africa, Sir Patrick Duncan, was arrested at Queenstown yesterday on a charge that he entered the Queenstown native location without a permit. He was arrested once before when he joined a passive resistance campaign among Africans in the Union. Mr Duncan elected to stay in prison rather than accept bail. He will appear in Court on Tuesday. At the time of his arrest he was bearing a message from the Liberal party to the annual conference of the African National Congress in Queenstown. Some of the Congress leaders are absent from the conference as they are in the Johannesburg gaol awaiting trial on charges of high treason. The 126 non-white prisoners held in custody on allegations of high treason have formed a mock parliament in the Johannesburg prison with daily debates. When one of its motions was defeated last week, the “Government” ordered its “Special Branch” to arrest the “Opposition.” “Government” debaters had vainly called for a ban on alcoholic liquor for all races in South Africa. In London, Canon John Collins, of St. Paul’s Cathderal, said to-night that the real purpose of the arrest of 150 people in South Africa for alleged high treason was the destruction of African and Indian political leadership. Canon Collins, preaching in a church in the city’s East End, appealed for money to help pay for the defence of the arrested people.