BIG AFRICAN PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19279, 18 March 1926, Page 6

BIG AFRICAN PROBLEM.

THE COLOUR BAR BILL.

GENERAL SMUTS' WARNING

" FIREBRAND IN HAYSTACK." [FROM OUR OWN COnnESPONDEKT.] CAPETOWN." Feb K. South Africa is again grappling with tl e colour problem For some years a spirit of pessimism lias been abroad in this country, a feeling that the whites are not holding their ow 1. The publication of census figures last year showing the dwindling of the whites and the rapid increase of the blacks has so swelled the ranks of the pessimists that it was only to be expected that the Government should try to allay alarm by legislation. That legislation is the Colour Bar Bill.

Briefly stated the bill seeks to make certain occupations in *he country the privilege of the whites. Under this bill natives will not be allowed to engage in certain work in the gold mines and other industries in the country, in order that this work may be preserved for semi-skilled white's. It is hoped, thereby, to create more work for those workless ' whites iti South Africa who are a growing and persistent problem. But definite racial legislation of this kind is bound to have a repercussion. The millions of natives in South Africa nonaged to find spokesmen to express their alarm and deep distrust of the Colour Bar Bill which was first introduced last year bv the Government. Yet even this agitation did not defer the Government, and as the Opposition Party were to some extent in favour ot a policy of a white South Africa l , the 'bill soon passed the House ot Assembly. To the astonishment of everybody, how ever, the generally quiescent Senate or Upper House, refused to pass the Colour Bar Bill. On the very eve of Parliament closing for the session last year, the bill was thrown out. Henceforth, the Colour Bar Bill became a subject of party vvarfim. Emboldened by this unexpected success the Opposition, headed by General Smuts, has conducted a campaign against the Gov ernment on this issue. The Government's Determination. On the other hand, the Government wn> equally determined to pass the bill. The jubilation of the Opposition stiffened then resolve. They began by discussing tinreform of the Senate, asserting that it wa> an antiquated body and a deliberate hind ranee to legislation. Eventually, however. the Government decided to adopt the less troublaeome course of introducing the bill onco again and sending it to the Senate for acceptance. Consequently it has been the first bill of any importance introduced by the Government since the opening of Parliament a week ago. The debates revealed that the campaign against the bill grown considerably in the mean''me. The chief argument of the opposition is that. the Colour Bar Bill should now bo dropped until the Prime Minister, General Hertzog, outlines the new native policy in South Africa to which he has commited himself. Tint bill will certuinly alter the status of natives considerably in the country and for that reason, lit ; is argued, should bo considered as part o! the general native policy. But although there is much talk of a new native policy, it is not thought possible to introduce definite legislation during this session of Parliament. Incidentally, the Government feels very «iuch on its dignity since the Senate rejected the bill last year. So Colonel Cresweli, as Acting-Minister of Mines ami industries, introduced the Colour Bar M il again this week. The Senate and the Veto. The battle begia by a sharp exchange between the Minister and some members of the Opposition as to the Senate's right of ■ veto. Colonel • Cresweli denied that the Senate had any such right, pointing oufc that the South' Africa Act expressly provides • for & joint sitting-in the event of disagreement between the two' Houses. The chief reason he gave for introducing the .bill hardly seemed satisfactory. The people of this country, he said, bad decisively declared that they did not want the law-making authority to be in the hands of the present Opposition. 1 "We should not be doing our duty," Colonel Cresweli said, "if we . abandoned this legislation merely because the party opposite commands a majority in the Senate." He went so far as to admit that there might be something in the argument that the bill should be regarded .s part of a general native policy, and - therefore postponed, if, in fact, it altered the principles of policy which had hitherto prevailed. He made an unfortunate reference to, the bill as "trivial mining 'regulations," which caused one of the . Opposition to >ask if it was trivial "to take away a man's rights." » Leading the Opposition in the debate, General Smuts argued that the bill gave the Government absolute and arbitrary powers in any part of the Union to say what classes of people shall deal with machinery, and to make a "segregation of work which none of us foresee to-day, and which w« may live, to regret." All this, he insisted, travelled far beyond any pre-existing colour bar, the old bar having been primarily based on the principle of safety for numbers of men employed in the mines. r

Mr. Krige, also a member of the Opposition, in an eloquent appeal to the House to remember that the natives are also South African subjects—one member called them "sons of South Africa''—challenged the policy of repression, insisting that it must react on those who applied it, and that it must destroy any hope of native co-operation in securing a solution of the native question. General Smuts' Final Appeal.

But the Government refused to change their attitude, and the Opposition amendments were rejected. Just befoi'c the bill passed its third reading. General Smuts made a final appeal and warned the Government of the dangers they were challenging. "Native opinion is largely in revolt," he said. "Natives are seething with discontent ail over South Africa. With the best intentions : the - Prime Minister wishes to allay that And this is the start he makes. The Government has other troubles also. There is h bill regarding Asiatics. We will deal with that when the times comes. But there is no doubt that when that is passed, then the trouble will begin. The Asiatic Bill must lead to very grave troubles in administration. It is inevitable. As for the bill which has been gratuitously produced here, it is n firebrand flung into the haystack." And with this warning the bill was passed once again to the Senate.

The feeling of the natives of South Africa regarding the Colour Bar Bill was indicated at a meeting held after our correspondent's letter was despatched. One speaker urged the natives and coloured people to be brave and say like Abd e! Krim: "We shall fight until all our hopes are gone. We shall then kill cur women and children and ourselves go forth to die."