“Thousands Try To Leave South Africa”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29516, 18 May 1961, Page 16

“Thousands Try To Leave South Africa”

<Ntw Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, May 17. Thousands of persons are trying to get out of South Africa, according to immigrants aboard the cargo ship Schouten, which arrived at Dunedin today direct from South Africa.

Some persons had >een waiting from two to four years to get bookings on ships, they said. Between 600 and 1000 families are waiting in Bulawayo (Rhodesia) to come to New Zealand.

A building surveyor, Mr R. D. Fair, with his son Pascoe, said; “Trouble is coming in South Africa. If it is not this year, it will be the next. Frankly, we got out because we were damned frightened." Mr R. Greenaway, a ihodesian forester, with his vife and 12-year-old daughter, said: "Have you heard of the winds of change? Well, they have blown me out. I’m looking for peace and tranquillity, and that’s all.” The Rhodesian situation was far more explosive than in South Africa, said Mr Greenaway. There were only two races, natives and Europeans, and the natives were riding high—“by no means downtrodden’’ —and watching the Congo Mr A. Bickerstaffe, who retired as a British hotelkeeper to Scottburgh, near Durban, about 10 years ago, and has come with his wife to retire again in Hawke's Bay, said: “We. were not happy ..bout coming events. We were in Transvaal for three years There was trouble all round us. and we were told by the police to protect ourselves—l have given my gun away now I will have no use for it out here.”

“The Africans are coming on so fast, there is not much future in staying,” said Miss Pat Howick, aged 20, a university student from Salisbury (Rhodesia), who is heading for Auckland with her mother. Her father is following on a later ship. "The whole thing is very hot," she said. “I think a lot of African nationals have spent a lot of time in Russia, and they are leading the rest of the natives, who do not know what freedom means. “They think freedom means free bus rides, free beer, and so on They don’t understand the liabilities incurred by the European way of life Rhodesia has modem cities, and has seen lots of progress It is a shame to kick the European out at this stage." Because of the pressure on ship berths available, Mr Fair and his son had to separate from Mrs Fair and two daughters, leaving them to follow to New Zealand. Already two of the children live here. "South Africa is a police

State, there is no douot about that,” Mr Fair said. "I could not talk like this to you there. The police would be calling at 4 o’clock in the morning for me. Even now, I am a bit worried about my wife.

“Personally, I am no Republican. South Africa was taken out of the Commonwealth by the Boers. The British have no say. rhe police are really a secret service. You will not find any Englishmen in it,” he said.