Senator Praises Commonwealth

Press, Volume C, Issue 29466, 18 March 1961, Page 11

Senator Praises Commonwealth

WASHINGTON, March 16. The British Commonwealth, in refusing to yield to South Africa’s apartheid policy, showed “courageous devotion” to the principle of racial equality, Senator Jacob Javits said today. , ( a

The -Republican Congressman from New York said in a speech prepared for delivery on the floor of the United States Senate: “I deeply .believe Americans will salute the courage of the 10 Heads of Government of the British Commonwealth of Nations, while they view with regret the withdrawal of the Union of South Africa from the Commonwealth.” This was the first public comment by a Congressman on the issue. The “Christian Science Monitor” said in an editorial today: “In its broadest dimensions and long-run imnlications the victory that South Africa's Prime Minister Verwoerd has thrust upon the British-led Commonwealth of Nations is an even bigger one than Britain’s Prime Minister Macmillan had been trying to win for it. “It is a victory for morality at the cost of a material setback. Its good effects on the future relations among the world's races will probably far out-distance the immediate effects, good or bad. within the Commonwealth.” There was no editorial comment in the New York evening papers . on the withdrawal of South Africa from the Commonwealth In Canada, the overwhelming reaction of the press was that the Commonwealth had improved its moral strength, even though the withdrawal of a Commonwealth country was regrettable. The Canadian' Press said that informed sources in Ottawa considered that a substantial body of political opinion in South Africa was willing to make sufficient concessions in the apartheid policy to have stayed in the Commonwealth. Some Canadian officials have not written off the possibility of repercussions in South Africa—perhaps decisive ones—between the return of the South African Prime Minister (Dr Verwoerd) to South Africa and May 31. when the country will become a republic, the Canadian Press said. It was unlikely that South Africa’s departure from the Commonwealth would upset the trade ties with Canada, it said. The Canadian External Affairs Minister and Acting Prime Minister, Mr Howard Green, told the House of Commons today that Commonwealth preferences were based on a treaty with South Africa. “It is the practice for Canada to live up to the terms of its treaties.” he said, amid applause from the Conservative benches. He said it would not be helpful for Canadians to start suggesting reprisals against South Africa Trade between Canada and South Africa had been about six to one in favour of Canada in recent vears, the Canadian Press said. Many Canadian newspapers today said that South Africa’s withdrawal should lead other Commonwealth

countries to think more deeply of the meaning and future of -the association of nations. The “Kitchener-Waterloo Record” said: “There must be no smugness. . . . Other members tolerate practices not entirely consonant with full democratic beliefs. In fact the crisis over South Africa could prove valuable if it forces a rethinking leading to new and more constructive uses of this unique organisation.” The "Medicine Hat News" said: “The real tragedy is that a nation of South Africa’s potential should be deprived of the benefits of Commonwealth association because of one man’s bigoted policies ” The "Cape Breton Post” said: “The consequences of the withdrawal can not ~>e fully calculated yet. It will put South Africa in an extremely lonely place amid the concept of the nations, and in the long run the outcome could be a national disaster, unless the people of South Africa finally rid themselves of a Government that has been leading them toward catastrophe.” The Brantford “Expositor" said, however, that South Africa may be found to have lost little of practical value “Common aims and interests the members certainly have, but these are not entirely on a lofty plane. The economic motive for membership—a form of self-seeking —is stronger than some countries care to admit,” the “Expositor” said. “In a South Africa which is going it alone, the antiapartheid white liberals— no more than a handful as yet—may find their position most difficult," it said.