Apartheid

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29716, 9 January 1962, Page 5

Apartheid

Sir,—l am a New Zealander who has never lived in South Africa, but unlike many New Zealanders I have read both sides of the apartheid question, including publications sent direct from South Africa. If “1.5. T. considers residence in a country an essential qualification for one to discuss its policies, then by the same token many of our public men should never have expressed opinions on Nazi Germany or Communist Russia, as they were neither Germans nor Russians nor had they ever lived there. I agree with ’T.S.T." this it is manifestly unwise to lay down the law on subjects we do not know much about. It is excellent advice which could well be heeded by many opponents of apartheid.—Yours, etc., B. B. THOMPSON. January 8, 1962.

Sir, —It is nonsense to say that Africa is better today than it was before the Europeans arrived. In South Africa the reports of the welfare workers show that tuberculosis and malnutrition are prevalent among the natives. As for many Africans entering South Africa, this only applies to the wandering bands of casual workers. There is great poverty and unemployment among the natives and they have to do whatever work they are fortunate enough to obtain from their so-called '‘white masters.” Travel agents in South Africa have long lists of people of all nationalities who are eager to leave for such countries as Britain and New Zealand where “apartheid” is a dirty word.— Yours, etc., BARRY FENTON. January 8, 1962.

i Sir, —Your correspondent John H. Wicks asks us to consider the barbarous excesses in the Congo. But cruelties just as barbarous were committed by the Hitler regime, to go no farther back in history; they are not a specialty of Africans. It was for a "reasoned" alterna. tive to apartheid that he asked at first. In the Congo power was handed over without preparation; in Nigeria, where “reasoned" preparation has gone on steadily for 50 years, Africans have proved that they can maintain civilised rule, and Europeans work contentedly with and under them. The opponents of apartheid do not, I imagine, envisage, "handing over power.” but a gradual and “reasoned” approach to sharing the rights and duties of citizenship. I have not yet read a defence of apartheid that is based on reason rather than on emotionalism and fear. If such a book has been written perhaps your correspondent could tell us its name.—Yours, etc., « V.C.D. January 8, 1962.