S.A. Was Pushed Out, Says Menzies

Press, Volume C, Issue 29469, 22 March 1961, Page 15

S.A. Was Pushed Out, Says Menzies

LONDON, March 21. South Africa was, in effect, told to leave the Commonwealth, the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Menzies) said last night. It was “pushed out,” he said. “If Dr. Verwoerd had not gone when he did, I would have been surprised,” he told an audience of about 600 at an Australia Club dinner in London. Five Prime Ministers had made it “completely clear” that they would not have South Africa in on the terms of the formula prepared during the conference.

They had said that the conference could issue the formula, but they would not have South Africa and would attack her at “evcy convenient or inconvenient opportunity.” Mr Menzies said he was no apostle of apartheid—“also I have my own immigration policy'—but he felt bound to say that he would not have left the conference later than Dr. Verwoerd did.

South Africa’s departure from the Commonwealth was one of the most dramatic events of Commonwealth history.

Mr Menzies said he disagreed with apartheid—“it won’t work”—but Dr. Verwoerd had presented his case with obvious honesty and great lucidity. But “if I don’t agree with your policy, I don’t have to tell you that you are a man of no character,” Mr Menzies said. He believed that in the Commonwealth “we are tolerant, that we agree to disagree, that we seek to understand each other, but we don’t stand up to lecture each other.

“Never until this year, have we sat in. judgment on each other.”

Dr. Verwoerd believed that his policy of apartheid would work out "very nicely."

But the more it succeeded and the more it raised the standards of the Bantu, the more intolerable they would find it to be second-class citizens. “The ultimate conflict will be bloody and devastating.” he said. Mr Menzies said he and the British Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) had "worked like horses" io develop a communique to expose the criticisms ot South Africa and South Africa’s answer, and yet allow South Africa to stay in the Commonwealth as a republic. When he heard that Dr. Verwoerd had agreed to the formula "I thought this is it —in all my innocence.” But five Prime Ministers had then got up and made “completely clear” their views about Africa staying in the Commonwealth. Mr Menzies said he would not tolerate being lectured by other people. "There will not be any Commonwealth if it becomes a court with people on trial, because we shall all expel each other. "If people started telling me what Australia’s internal policy should be. well I should tell them to jump in the Serpentine” (a lake in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens), he said. Although he could not agree with Dr. Verwoerd’s views, his impression was that Dr. Verwoerd was a man of immense integrity who emerged from the conference with the highest respect. Mr Menzies made frequent references to his faith in the Commonwealth and brought the diners to their feet clapping when he said that since his earliest days "I have had a great vision of what the Commonwealth will stand for. I would hate to see that this is blurred.” N.Z. Potatoes.—Sydney this week will have its first consignment of New Zealand potatoes for four years, but none will be released for general consumption. They will be processed into chips under strict supervision.— Sydney, March 21.