London

South African Indian issue: Conference in London

London, Tuesday: A special delegate conference of the India League, organised by the South African Committee of the League, will be held in London on 15 March to consider the South African Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act.

An invitation to the delegates says: "The Union of South Africa is a self-governing Dominion and entitled to past legislation without let or hindrance from outside. But the people of Britain and the World are equally entitled to declare their attitude towards legislation which violates the law of civilised nations embodied in the Charter of the United Nations."

London Indians urged to espouse cause of South African Indians

Speaking at a meeting under the auspices of the Swaraj Party in London, Mr. Ashwin Choudree said that of all the 52 nations assembling at UNO, South Africa stood out conspicuously alone in pursuing a rigid colour bar policy to strangulate economically; and to hold down politically and socially, her subject races.

"She cannot attend UNO with her tongue in her cheek and subscribe ostensibly to the principles of the Charter.

America

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

My personal position in my own country on racial minority questions has always been very clear. I cannot conceive that in any country belonging to the United Nations, groups having reached required standards of development should not be conceded their full rights as citizens. If the situation which has been described to me as existing for Indians in South Africa really exists, it would seem to me deplorable primarily because we are looking forward to a world at peace in which all peoples shall be regarded as human beings and judged by their accomplishment.

Paul Robeson

The courageous struggle being waged by the Indian people in South Africa against the vicious discriminatory policies of the Union government has the full support of the Council on African Affairs of which I am Chairman. Our organisation has written the American delegation to the United Nations urging that the petition of the Indian government on behalf of Indian nationals in the Union of South Africa be given full and thorough consideration by the General Assembly and we are also enlisting public support in this country to this same end, I have been especially gratified to learn of the developing unity among all sections of the non-European population, together with progressive Europeans, in the common fight for a democratic South Africa. This is the real key to victory. The African masses, who suffer the heaviest burdens of discrimination and exploitation, must in their practical day-to-day struggle be given concrete help by all other groups in South Africa, including white labour, who are striving to better their own condition. And at the same time the great strength of the African people so dramatically demonstrated in the recent mineworkers' strike must be brought into play in aiding the struggles of their allies. Even here in the United States we have yet not fully learned the lesson of the need for united front action.

But we are making rapid and tremendous progress in that direction. I earnestly hope that the same will prove true in South Africa.

I wish you success in your present passive resistance campaign, and I honour the hundreds of Indian men and women who are defying South African injustice. I assure you that the Council on African Affairs and I personally will do all in our power to see that America is made fully aware of the great and heroic struggle for democracy that is going on today in the Union of South Africa.

•  Chairman of the Council on African Affairs, New York India League of US on: "Equality for Indians everywhere"

New York, Thursday: Mr. Richard J. Walsh, Chairman of the Indian League of America, said today "the League continues to support the case of the Indians of South Africa in accordance with the spirit of the resolution adopted by the United Nations Assembly. As the organisation consists largely of Americans long devoted to the cause of Indian independence, the India League is also committed to equality for Indians everywhere," Mr. Walsh said. "The League successfully seeks to win citizenship and immigration rights for Indians in the United States. It lends its aid at long distance equally to the South African Indian communities in their struggle for their rights. The League will support any and all non-violent measures."

Representative Americans deplore "Ghetto Act"

Ruth Salisbury Lash, of Florida, representative of the One World Association, made a strong attack on the deplorable mentality in South Africa which failed to recognise the ordinary rights of man and denied justice and liberty to an important section of its own people. Dr John R. Andu, President of the Indonesian Club of America, stated, on behalf of 75 000 000 Indonesians who also struggled against injustice, I send wholehearted support to the gallant Indian men and women who today carry on a non-violent struggle in South Africa to vindicate their honour and self-respect. There will be no peace on earth as long as the world allows such iniquities to be perpetuated.

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