Apartheid

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29189, 27 April 1960, Page 9

Apartheid

Sir,—May I repiy to Mr Ralph Wheeler. The "King Canute" and the ‘Tides of History” are not true analogies. Canute had no concrete sea walls, and “history” records only the past, but warns us that when civilisations collapse it is because their nationals and their leaders have lost the firmness necessary to resist attack. Here, we are not dealing with educated peoples like the Poles at Warsaw or the Hungarians, treacherously crushed by the most powerful imperialism the world has known, but with races which will not be fit for full or self-government for some generations to come, as is evidenced by the Mau Ma’u outbreak, for which no excuse is available. Aldous Huxley warned us recently of the danger to democracy through the use in politics of modern advertising methods with their slogans and emotional appeals.—Yours, etc., A. K. DYNE. April 25, 1960.

Sir, —I am surprised to learn “Transvaaler” has read “African Giant,’’ and learnt so little. Cloete writes authoritatively, having generations of. forbears as pioneers there. What the slump (a disgrace to the administration of the time) has to do with the incapabilities, at present, of the African, is not apparent. I repeat: the African must advance his education, learn industrial skills, learn the responsibilities of democracy, and produce some decent leaders. This is a question of time and endeavour by the African. Too often the African with the benefit of white education seeks power only over his own race, becoming the worst despot of all. “Transvaaler” should be constructive and show how equality (non-existent) can be put into practice without destroying all the white man has built up to the final detriment of both black and white races.—Yours, etc. FEET ON GROUND. April 25, 1960.