RACIAL CONFLICT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 29 December 1925, Page 5

RACIAL CONFLICT.

THE POSITION IN AFRICA

QUESTION' OF EQUALITY

A note of 'warning that if something is nob done to establish better rela-. tions between the black and white races terrible conflict will result was sounded by the Rev, Frank Harty, in an address to the Auckland Rotary Club.

The problem of the African races was dealt with by Mr. Harty. He briefly touched upon the history of Africa and the slave trade, saying that to-day the black and white men m Africa had a common destiny, and they would have to find their way out. The problem was one for the British people. There were three systems under which black labour was employed in Africa. In British West Africa the blacks worked their own holdings, and in return for their products received the manufactured goods they needed. Then there was the ordinary employed labour and the forced labour in Portuguese territory. In British East Africa there was no forced labour. The land trouble was very acute in Africa. The Bantu, who loved their land and cattle, were gradually being driven off their holdings. This kind of thing rankled in the heart of the black man and was become a very acute danger. To say that the native African was lazy was absolutely wrong. During the last 60 years he had progressed to a wonderful degree. “The danger is made more acute by the intense race hatred existing in South Africa and in South America,” Mr. Harty said. “The sense of injustice is fusing the coloured peoples together, and for the first time in history is making them have race consciousness. The ,problem of black and white must be solved by this generation.” The African peoples demanded education, industrial equality, a share in the election of their rulers and the right to be treated as human beings. AJ. present there were churches for blacks and for whites, and the two races were separated in every way. In Jamaica the race problem had been solved. He spent his early years there and the black man was treated with equality. There were, black lawyers, black doctors, and black clergymen, and they were exceedingly learned and polite. It was where the black man was treated as an inferior that the trouble arose.

The g§eat problem had to be decided now, and the best way was the peaceful one. It would be a slow business, but would be worth while in the end.