Similarity Seen For Aust., S.A.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 17

Similarity Seen For Aust., S.A.

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, September 9. A South African Embassy official today likened Australia’s policy in New Guinea to South Africa’s apartheid policy.

“Australia, like South Africa, is trying to teach the native population selfgovernment,” the official, Mr J. J. Venter, said. Mr Venter, the new information and cultural attache with the South African Embassy in Canberra, was speaking to reporters on his arrival in the liner Northern Star. He said the word “apartheid” had been dropped in South Africa and replaced with “separate development," but the meaning was the same —the development of two classes of people able to govern themselves. “We have .simply found a

solution for two completely different classes of people to live together,” he said. “The natives will have full political rights in an independent State and the separate development eventu-

ally will result in whites being governed by whites and blacks being governed by blacks." Mr Venter, referring to New Guinea, said: “The Australian Government is working hard to teach New Guinea natives self-government but your problem is external. New Guinea Is an island many miles away from your shore, but we have our trouble in our own back yard. “All we want, as does the Australian Government, is a race of natives governing themselves in an independent State."