SEGREGATION MOVE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28766, 11 December 1958, Page 17

SEGREGATION MOVE

Ban On Municipal Voters (Rec. 11 p.m.) CAPE TOWN, Dec. 10. The Cape Provincial Executive Committee is today considering • proposed ban on coloured municipal voters. The committee has before it a motion adopted by the Nation-alist-controlled Provincial Council demanding the exclusion of coloured voters (those of mixed blood) from the municipal voters’ roll.

A committee, including a former Chief Justice of South Africa and three members of Parliament, yesterday pledged itself to organise mass protests against the proposal. A non-racial system of municipal voting has existed in Cape Province for more than 100 years, the committee said. It declared that the white and non-white co-operation which resulted gave an example “we believe could be followed with profit by those whose policies are today creating discord, suspicion, hatred, racial animosity, and grave injustices.” The former Chief Justice is Mr A. van de Sandt Centlivres. The three M.P.’s are Mr A. Bloomberg. Mr L. Lee-Warden, and Mr M. W. Holland. Yesterday nearly 200 prominent Cape Town residents pledged support to any action opposing the proposal. Jet Blast Causes Series Of Mishaps (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 10. The blast from one of the jets of a taxi-ing 8.0.A.C. Comet 4 airliner caused a series of accidents last night at Idlewild international airport. The Comet’s pilot, apparently unaware of the accident, which caused no injuries, took off for London. Eye-witnesses said that as the plane was turning, its powerful jet blast caught a wheeled loading ramp and smashed it into the plate glass window of an airline’s office. The ramp cannoned off the window into a station waggon, which was unoccupied, then hurtled 100 feet along the pavement and into trucks loaded with baggage. Christmas Trees.—Denmark expects to sell three million Christmas trees—two million of them abroad—in the next three weeks.—Copenhagen, December

That was the gruesome story behind a report by the Chief Justice, Sir Paget Bourse, which was made at the request of the Governor, Sir Hugh Foot, and which was published yesterday. The “attack was most savage,’’ said Sir Paget Bourke. “The injuries inflicted indicate an extraordinary bloodlust.” In the report Sir Paget Bourke cleared the British security forces of charges that they wilfully exposed the released Greek Cypriot prisoners to Turkish savagery. But he refused to endorse the view of the military authorities that the orders given and the action taken were reasonable. The incident occurred during inter-communal strife. A party of about 35 Greek Cypriots had been arrested by the security forces as intending attackers of the Turks. The party was disarmed and set down from a truck near a Turkish village and ordered to walk home, a distance of 10 to 13 miles. The Greeks walked into a Turkish ambush. Eight were killed and five were severely wounded. Thirteen Turkish Cypriots later were charged with murder but were acquitted for lack of evidence. [Earlier Reference Page 10.]