SOUTH AFRICA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21242, 24 January 1931, Page 8

SOUTH AFRICA.

A NEW ZEALANDER’S IMPRESSIONS. Mr E, Murray Fuller, the Wellington artist, who recently held a successful exhibition of British contemporary art in the National Gallery of South Africa, Capetown, which was opened by the Governor-General (the Earl of Athlone), writes from Jonannesburg:— “During my three months’ visit to this country I have formed some impressions of ‘ Darkest Africa ’ which may prove interesting to New Zealanders. Yes, the term ‘ Darkest Africa-,’ mostly used by South Africa’s critics, still appears in the press from time to time, and never fails to raise a storm of newspaper _ controversy, newspaper controversies being very popular here when there is little news. How true the term is, as true to-day as when it was first coined, although now in a different sense. South Africa, whose natural resources make her the richest country of modern times, is still fighting within herself. No other community in the world is made up of more conflicting ingredients; so it is not to be wondered at that the normal rhythm of South African life should trace itself in a series of racial misunderstandings, feuds, strikes, rebellions, and wars. It was not until I made the voyage to Capetown in a Union Castle mail ship that I fully realised the British form only half the white population of this country. Out of 80 passengers 30 were Belgians, 0 French, 4 Germans, and there were several others from South America and Central Europe. I have not mentioned the ‘ true Afrikanders, of whom there were many. An Afrikander, as far as I can understand, is African born of Dutch parentage and a sworn member of the Nationalist movement. Quite a cosmopolitan crowd, and in striking contrast to the passenger list of an Australian or New Zealand liner outword bound from England! A LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES. “ South Africans do not sufficiently appreciate their good fortune in having a country with such a wonderful climate and so many undeveloped opportunities. I am convinced that most people in' this' country are extremely conservative in their methods, and the backwardness of South African farming, as compared with New Zealand, Australian, and Canadian, is lees due to the poverty of the soil than to the ease' with which money has been made here through the natural mineral resources. THE GOLDEN CITY. “Capetown alone boasts of at least sis multi-millionaires, and the Golden City, Johannesburg, as everybody knows, supplies two-thirds of the world’s gold, and has a spirit of cheerfullness and an air of prosperity that I have not experienced anywhere else these hard, times. What a remarkable city. Built 6000 feet above sea level, it has a most invigorating climate. A little over 40 years ago, where Johannnesburg now stands, was bare ‘veld,’ and it now has a population of over 200,000. _ Its cultural growth has not been so rapid, and I should imagine that Filmland and other numerous picture magazines have a greater reading public here than in New York itself. Although there are no gunmen here to date, the police reported in the press recently that there were 66,000 registrations for pistols and revolvers in Johannesburg, and they imagine there are twice as many not yet registered. Johannesburg has, however, an excellent ‘ art gallery and a collection of modern pictures and sculptures that can hold its own - anywhere in the world; due to the generosity of its millionaires and their wise choice in commissioning Sir Hugh Lane to collect these, masterpieces for them. ENGLISH AND AFRIKAANS. “ Roy Campbell, the South African poet, in a recent article on his own country, writes:—‘Registering the fact that the language of the French Huguenots was suppressed, it is not unlikely that the English language, too, may go the same way.’ Afrikaans, the substitute, is a rugged and vigorous language, but such an unholy mixture of German, Flemish, Dutch, French, and Malay, with sometimes a little Kaffir thrown in to flavour the ingredients, that, it appears, to the stranger, almost farcical. It is. however, a serious and fowerful medium to the true Afrikander, met an Englishman recently who was refused a mug of water, when his car broke down on the veldt, because he could not ask for it in Afrikaans. The isolated farm ho visited was owned: by an old Afrikander who, knew English perfectlyIn my own experience, the Afrikaans language has occasioned some almost Gilbertlan situations. For instance, the catalogue for my exhibition had to be printed in Afrikaans, as well as English, and I am convinced that everyone who visited the gallery knew English thoroughly. Even the Afrikaans experts at Stellenbosch University argue over translations and they haven’t yet agreed as to the correct translation into Afrikaans of 'National Gallery of South Africa. Someone engfested using pure German, and another igh Dutch. Up to the present, however, there is nothing engraved above its noble columns. Not even English. THE POLITICAL SITUATION. “When I was in Italy I was told there were only two political parties, the Fascist! and the Anti-Fascisti. I never met an Anti-Fascist, Mussolini saw to that and the islands south of Sicily could tell their tale. In South Africa, however, the situation is slightly different and the parties are divided into Nationalists and the ‘ unnational.’ However much General Hertzog and his Nationalists have tried to follow the Italian leader’s methods, there is still a kick left in the ‘ un-nationals ’ and they have' brought the wily Prime Minister up with a “round turn ’ to the tune that he now sets himself the task of forming the unity of white South Africa, and that Dutch and English-speaking South Africa should be one. The Nationalists are still very much in power, of course. That is why the Boy Scouts are not allowed to fly the Union Jack in this country. It is also why the gallery catalogue had to be printed in Afrikaans. General Hertzog returned from the Imperial Conference bursting with new ideas. They say he always comes back from an Imperial Conference with something fresh to tell South Africa. This time he made a memorable speech,—to a meeting of women Nationalists, too, —in which he said ‘that South Africa has been a Hell long enough.’ Thousands of, South Africans must have rubbed their eyes on a recent morning when they read his speech in the press —a speech that has brought the water in the political kettle to boiling point. The veriest child here knows, however, the inconsistencies of General Hertzog’s past, but the public adores sensations in the present and it speculates with enthusiasm on future developments; Everyone knows that General Hertzog doesn’t really mean to change the politics of South Africa, just as everyone knows that the Dutch and English can never unite. So this is South Africa! ”