AID TO DISUNION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 4 January 1924, Page 7

AID TO DISUNION.

THE TWO LANGUAGES IN AFRICA

The bi-lingual system is carried to absurd lengths in South Africa, accord- . ing to a writer in the National Review, whose pen-name is "Cape Pro- " vince." He considers that, as in Canada, the use of two languages will con- * tinue to keep the two sections of the white community apart. Every Government official, including the school . teacher, must pass an examination in j Dutch before he or she has the slight- 1 est hope of promotion. In eight out of • ten cases this is the last occasion on i which the official finds the language of any practical value. Every Govern- . ment notice, every Gazette, every form -, and letter heading in use in the civil service is bi-lingual. Essential services ' are starved, while these unnecessary ( and unavailing sops to the irreconcil- ■ able Republicans are solemnly con- '■ t'inued and deliberately extended. "Recently an attempt was made in the '. Cape Province by the Administrator of that province to enforce the prin- [ ciple on municipal and local authorities, and to make it a criminal offence for any official thereof to fail in carrying out all its provisions. The proposal aroused such, a storm of indignation that it had to be dropped. "In the recently inaugurated South African naval service, which consists of two mine sweeping trawlers and a sur- '. vey ship, no officer may receive promo- '• tion until he has passed in Dutch. This is perhaps the most amusing of i the many amusing features of this colossal and useless bribe we are pouring into the fathomless pockets of the . rebels. For in South African Dutch i there are no words suitable for use in 1 giving orders on shipboard •, such words will have to be imported from Holland, and will then be used as much a foreign language to the Boer as to the . Briton." In the recent Uitenhage by-election campaign, says "Cape Province," the native vote was an important factor, j As it was impossible for the Republicans to point to any improvement in , the natives' lot due to their efforts in the past (rather the contrary), they ! fell back upon calumniating the English. An election pamphlet circulated by them contains these words: "In \ Canada the artless Red Indians were . exterminated with blankets infected ; with the virus of smallpox, and in Australia the native problem was solved with strychnine put into cnr--1 cases of sheep on which the guileless aborigines feasted. Isn't it a strange 1 fact that in the countries colonised by - Britain the aboriginals hove practically 3 disappeared?'' In reply to this, "Cape l" Province" asks the Dutch Republicans > to say who exterminated the South ■ African bushmen, who opposed the 3 emancipation of the slaves, and who. 3 in the Transvaal, engaged in long and 3 ; violent wars with the Bnsut.os, until; " ' they had to call in British aid to pro- • tect them from the fury they nad aroused.