National Council of Churches

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 12

National Council of Churches

Sir,—Can “The Walrus” define “terrorist”? Would he agree that Mr Vorster and his security chief were terrorists interned during the Second World War? Is it not terrorism when the South African Government kidnapped a friend of mine, a practising Christian and, when he attempted to escape, shot him in the back? Dennis Brutus’s “crime” was to collect petitions to stop the 1960 All Black tour. Is it not terrorism when the Rhodesian Government prosecutes another friend of mine, a teenage daughter of a former Prime Minister, because she reasoned that all were equal before God? Is it not terrorism for less than 20 per cent of population to own over 80 per cent of the land? Is it not tongue-in-cheek of “The Walrus” to condemn clerics “who propound propaganda from the safety of the pulpit,” while writing under the safety of a nom-de-plume?—Yours, M. O’NEILL. August 31, 1971.

Sir,—A. R. Keay is apparently one of those who cannot differentiate between round and square, black and white, chalk and cheese. The following crimes have been committed by terrorist organisations subsidised by the W.C.C. to the approval of the N.C.C., in the pursuit of what A. R. Keay calls human rights and dignity; M.P.L.A., Angola, victims sawn alive lengthways by a rotary saw. Z.A.N.U., Rhodesia, woman tied down, soaked in petrol and set alight* F r e 1 i m o, Mozambique, family buried alive down to the head, and then connected to a warrior ant hill by. a trail of molasses. All because the victims refused to support the Communist ideology of the terrorists. These are facts which are neither ill-founded nor defamatory.

In accusing me of being defamatory, A. R. Keay is clearly calling the kettle black, as well as showing that he or she is quite unfit to talk on the evils of racialism.—Yours, etc., THE WALRUS. August 31, 1971.