WHITE AND THE BLACK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 277, 27 October 1925, Page 5

WHITE AND THE BLACK.

SOUTH AFRICAN PROBLEM. ANTIPATHY BETWEEN RACES. JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 6. There is one man in South Africa who is considered to bo the authority [ on native affairs. He is pr. C. T. I Lorain, a member oi the Native AfI fairs Commission, who has ti a veiled through all the native territories of South Africa and is known in almost every native kraal. This week he delivered an address cn the relations between the white man and the black, which is considered as one of the soundest expositions of South Aiiica s most vital problem which has yet been heard. In view of the present tour of the Prime Minister, General Htrtzog, through the native territories, the address has aroused considerable political interest. Dr. Loram said that when one began to analyse the white mail s attitude toward native affairs one found three main currents, the first of which was one of apprehension; the second, the desire to be fair, and the third the desire for a native policy and action on' that policy quickly. ‘ In the first instance,” he proceeded, “I tnimc most Europeans in this country are afraid of race mixture. They are afraid that, ultimately, the white people may be absorbed by the black PE °There has been proved a certain antipathy between the two races, and any idea of miscegenation is hateful to the white man. We see it particularly in Transvaal, where we have laws against the marrying of whites with blacks, and where we are all so shocked by the accounts of assaults by natives on white women.” Dr Dorain said that they must remember that natives experienced precisely 1 the same shock when their womenfolk were assaulted and they had the same dislike of mixed marriages. A SECOND APPREHENSION. “The second apprehension that the white people have is the question of industrial competition, ” said Dr Loram. “We are so apprehensive of this industrial competition that we have asked the Economic Commission to make a special reference of the effect of native competition on the wages of white people, if you analyse this situation for a moment you will find 1 that w© Europeans are largely responsible that such competition exists. Until a year or two ago our Jefiaite policy was to lure the native Irom his reserves into our large centres of population and industry. Wo let the Transvaal native escape a "ortain amount of taxation, we encouraged recruiting in the native areas and wo preached that we must not give took education to our native people, but

that what we must do was to teach them industry. And so wo have raised up a crop of what appears to bo trouble for ourselves. It is a fact that certain jobs that used to be done by Europeans are passing into the hands of natives. WILD MEN ON BOTH SIDES. “How should we look at that aspect of the native question,” added Dr. Loram. “I think the man who would analyse Mr Cousins’s figures and jnove them either true or false, would have done a very great service indeed to South Africa, because they have startled us more than any other thing in recent years. I think it would be interesting if we could know exactly whether the black man in this country desires that the wmte man should remain here or where he desires to go. “After a great many years’ experience in which I have met most responsible natives in South Africa, I don’t remember one responsible native who wished the white man to leave South Africa. The natives realise the tremendous benefit that the white occupation has been to South Africa. We have always among them the wild native, who talks about driving the white man into the sea, but then we have the equally wild European who talks of driving the natives north of the Zambesi.” Dr. Loram asked that there should bo no projudgment of any natives policy introduced by tile Government, and advised that it should be carefully studied. He referred to the joint councils of Europeans and natives established in Johannesburg and elsewhere,, and indicated that he regarded these bodies as one of the best signs of the desire of the white man and black man to co-operate. “Then we have the new phenomenon among our white people, the phenomenon of unemployment, and we began to attribute this to the excessive employment of natives, so that we have very considerable reason to fear black people as industrial competitors. How do we react to that apprehension P Well, we pass in our Parliament a Minimum Wage Bill. We make an attempt to pass a colour bar. W r e talk, but don’t act. We talk about segregating the native so that this industrial competition with the white man may cease. EFFECT OF THE COLOUR BAR. “Now, any thinking man who is puzzled by this question of industrial competition—and we all wish to find out if it is really the case that the activity in the employment of natives results in a decrease of European employment—should ask himself whether the colour bar is necessary, in view of the fact that the Governmtnt has established a wage bill with the expressed intention of preventing the exploitation of labour. We should ask our-

selves tho question, what would be the effect of a colour bar, particularly on the minds of the natives,, if on the statute book there is a definite restriction of the employment of four-fifths of the population in certain industries. “Wo might ask ourselves whether it is fair to restrict the employment of natives in our European areas —natives whom we have been so largely responsible for bringing in, before we have made any provision for employment for them in other areas.

“These, I think, are questions which puzzle the European when he thinks about native affairs.”

Mr Cousins in his last census report had furnished figures, said Dr. Loram, which had staggered the white section of the community and figures which, if true, would tend to prove that in 50 years’ time South Africa would be largely a black man’s country. It was to be regretted that more white South Africans were leaving the country than were coming to it. “We dislike very much,” continued Dr. Loram, “the fact that the natives in the Cape Province have the franchise on the same terms as the Europeans ; we are timid about native development because we fear that if we develop them they may one day swamp us, and we are determined that the political power enjoyed by tho natives in the Cape shall not extend to the Transvaal, Free States or Natal.