THE COLOUR LINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20137, 24 December 1928, Page 12

THE COLOUR LINE.

SOUTH AFRICAN " MENACE."

ASSERTION BY A MINISTER. " A BIG UNITED WHITE PARTY." (rnoM on: own romucspoMir.NT.) CAPETOWN. Nov. 12 Is there a native menace in South Africa? Some lime ago a sensational an. noiinceincnt appeared in an American newspaper suggesting that a series of in eidents iu the Barbel tori district of the Transvaal were inspired by a secret veil delta against white authority and flier" was reason to believe thai communistic influences were at work anion;: the natives which aimed at the complete overthrow of the present system of government in this country. Approached liv the Soutl. African represent a I ive of the \kw Xkai.nvd IIi• i; \i i> to express an opinion on this serious question the Prime Minister, General llerlzog. in his capacity of Min ister of Native Affairs, called for a special report from the native commissionei in Iho particular territory con coined The result was a statement that there wore no signs of unrest in the Bar beiton district in the direction indicated '1 he only .symptoms o' unrest among Hie natives of that part of the Transvaal, says the report, are tho preachings of the In dust rial and Commercial Union—a col on red and native organisation—but so far as a secret vended a is concerned tho commissioner has no hesitation in •avinu that this rumour is entirely unfounded. Since then, however, there has been the statement by Mr Tielman Roos. the Minister of Justice, that 111 ore actually is a native menace in South Africa Speaking in Johannesburg Ml Roos dealt at length with this matter, and prophesied that the wlite people of this country would bo driven into one united political party to create a bigger and more p-ton' weapon to save Smith Africa "No Time for Bolshevism." "Whether we as a party win the next election or not. it makes no difference," Mr Roos said, "we fight for something which must succeed We fight for tho thing which is at the heart of the nation, the dearest thing in our national life. The underlying spirit of tho nation must be nationalism. It, is tho strong rock—the one unmoving rock of politics. It is tlio rock to which wo can hold to fight Communism, Bolshevism, and all the c I her isms which f.'u e us." Mr. Rons attacked "the Bolshevist attempt to put new-fangled ideas into the heads of South African natives. We ill South Africa have no time for Bo] sliovism." said Mr. Roos. "We do not want disturbing, disruptive ideas in our native policy. We have to make Souih Africa safe for the whites, and anything endangering our safety we must fight. As Nationalists we shall fight to the utmost any attempt to develop the natives on lines w liit-li will endanger the white standard of the T nion." Tho object of the Communists in South Africa, Mr. Roos went nil. was to antagonise the natives, and if that policywas successful it meant that the Communists in South Africa were i;oing to do what they always suspected them of wanting to do as a result of their speeches —to stir up the natives of this country by linking up tho white and native proletariat. Proletariat was a word they never employed in South Africa because tho white man there was in every sense of the term an aristocrat — a man who believed in the rule of the best man, and felt that he was one of tho ruling class of South Africa Rulers and Governors. "A man of that class cannot be a member of the proletariat, and I deny most emphatically, on behalf of the men who have tho same blood m their veins as I have, that they are members of any proletariat of any colour whatever. I deny absolutely that any part of tho Dutchspeaking race of this country belongs to the proletariat. I have so many English friends, too, that I think I can make a similar denial on their part. Remember this, that the position of the white people of South Africa is that they arc rulers and governors, and people who are rulers and governors cannot be members of the prolet a riat. "Therefore we say this today that, we will rule the natives in South Africa, we will look after native interests hero, but we will never allow this Moscow dream of a black republic in South Africa to materialise—never to get within a million miles of reality. 'l'he activities of tho I.C. C. are i p no sense trade union activities, but largely political. We are allowing these natives to go about the country insulting everyone I am in a better position that, General Ilertzog. because Clements Kadalio apologised to liini, but 1 should regard it as a most grievous insult if a native apologised lo me." There are many white people iu South Africa to-day who wero afraid of being custodians of a white South Africa, said Mr. Roos. They talked about the past, ami said that those win wished to make South Africa safe for the while. popula tion belonged to the old Boers of the |iast. I'ho fail was that people today were not wortliv of being compared with the old Boers. Spirit of tho Old Boers. The old Boers, continued Mr Roos. would never dream of sitting on the same body with natives, would never dream of ' mingling with natives in the same wav that many South Africans mingled 'with them to-day. If the old Boer's had come into this country with tho feelings thai animated tlie prophets of to. dav tho South Africans of to-day would not haw been a white race. They would have, been a coloured race. "I want to speak for every section of the Nationalist Party in South Africa," said Mr Roos. "and say that so far as we are concerned wo cannot possibly have any political truck with anybody who shows that he has any feeling or any sympathy with the I.C.U. movement in South Africa. Any reference to the 1.C.1.. movement is going to close the ranks of tho Nationalist Party more firmly ami strongly than over they have boon closed in the past Wo believe that in this we of the Nationalist Party have a safe and sure and enduring foundation to build upon. We will build upon that foundation, and we will carry the people, not only the Nationalists, we will carry the people of South Africa on that point. " The big united white party is coming whether lie want it. or not," concluded Mr. Roos, "and one of the things that will drive us whites into a united party is tho native menace. For there is a native menace and it would be foolish to deny it."