“Deep South Changing Its Opinion On Colour”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30339, 15 January 1964, Page 15

“Deep South Changing Its Opinion On Colour”

The Deep South is changing its opinion about colour, and it is an agonising process, according to the Rev. D. G. Salthouse, who has returned to Christchurch after spending three months and a half in the region. Many white Southerners, Mr Salthouse said in an interview yesterday, had come to the position where all they could say was: “I don't know what to think next, ’’and families were split oyer the matter. This was difficult for such a warmhearted people as the Southerners.

The situation was different from that presented in the press, Mr Salthouse said. Many Baptist churches in the South had placed a minute in their records saying that if a Negro sought membership of the church, he would be accepted as a brother. There was a very wide gap between the whites and Negroes, but the problem was a complex one with two sides, and change was coming. pie minister of the Papanui North Baptist Church, Mr Salthouse visited the United States with his wife after three months’ travel in Britain and on the Continent, and after attending the Baptist World Youth Conference held in Beirut last July. This was attended by pOO persons from 52 countries. Seventeen New Zealanders attended.

Enjoying fellowship with Christians from all over the world through meeting them at the conference was a great experience, he said. The conference was officially English speaking, but language barriers presented a big problem, rhe only translation available was from English into Arabic.

While in England, Mr Salthouse preached at several churches. The Church in England was at a very low ebb at the moment, as it was out of touch with the people

and their lives, he said. This was not so in America, where the Church was in touch, as it spoke the same language as the people. The life of the Baptist Church in the United States was marked by a great spirit of generosity in the supplying of material goods and caring for people, and laymen held a very strong place. In New Zealand half the church membership could disappear overnight if the church lost its minister, but in the United States he had been to a church that was packed at every service, although it had been without a minister for nine months and was served only by lay preachers. His travel abroad had shown him that New Zealand was a very sheltered country that knew little of fear, Mr Salthouse said. In other countries he had found fear where he had not expected to find it. Florida, for example, had received a great scare through the trouble with Cuba. He had also become aware, he said, of the shoddiness of New Zealand goods, especially manufactured goods, by comparison with those available abroad.