Documents: Africans Acting Alone

DOCUMENT 47. "Native Disabilities in South Africa." Pamphlet by Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, July 1932 (Printed, 18 pages)

The Non-European Conference.

The South African Non-European Conference was founded four years ago when all the existing political, semi-political, industrial, agricultural, educational and other organisa­tions, over thirty in number, of Bantu and Coloured people, came together for the first time in South African history under the direction and influence of a single control. From the beginning the Convener has been Dr. A. Abdurahman, M.P.C., and I have been the Chairman.

Among the subjects discussed last January (1931) by this Conference at Bloemfontein was the speech made by the South African Premier, General Hertzog, in London, Septem­ber 1930, when he urged the British Govern­ment to adopt in its African Colonies, espe­cially Kenya, the policy he had himself instituted in the Union of South Africa, namely, the denial to all non-Europeans of equal treatment in Church and State.

After an exhaustive discussion the following motion was adopted:--

"In view of the fact that General Hertzog has definitely expressed his opinion in England on the Non-European problem out­side South Africa, and as he has urged the Imperial Government to shape its future policy so as to harmonize with that of the present Union Government, and as the latter's policy is based on the principle of no Equality in Church or State between Black and White, this Conference considers that the time has arrived to send a deputation to England to place before the British people a full statement of its views on the matter of equal rights and the status of Non-European citizens in the British Empire."

Originally, the Conference had intended to send a deputation of at least five representatives, of which I happen to be among those nominated, in order that they may address the British public on the matter from as many platforms as possible, to educate public opinion on their view.

The financial depression that has befallen the whole civilised world has rendered it impossible for us to carry out our original programme beyond its present attenuated form in the shape of myself as the sole representative to have managed to reach England with this all-important message. Therefore small though I am in numbers I shall, however, do my best to convey to you the intention of my conference.

In the first place I wish it to be clearly understood that I have not come to ask the British Government or public to intervene directly on our behalf in local South Africa politics, nor to take up the question of our local grievances as such; because we are fully aware that South Africa is a self-governing Dominion with an independent status that enables her to manage all her domestic affairs without external interference even by Great Britain. Our Prime Minister himself openly resents outside interference in South African domestic affairs such as the Native question inasmuch as the British Parliament of 1909 endowed his country with full autonomy under the South Africa Act. But in September 1930 he himself deliberately stepped over this barrier from his own side by claiming, in London, to advise the Imperial Government and making an appeal to the British public to change the British traditional policy of equal rights and paramouncy of  Native interests in African colonies, asking that this policy be altered so as to harmonise with his own domestic Native policy in South Africa whereby all non-Whites are placed under a constitutional Colour Bar and are statutorily excluded by means of minor legislation and regulations from all equality of treatment in Church or State as citizens. He clearly ruled out the principle of equality of citizenship with the paramouncy of Native interests as an impossible and undesirable formula. The conference that I represent regards this as a challenge for it to express its opinion per contra.

Sir James Rose-Innes in a letter to the London Times rightly pointed out at the time that General Hertzog's claim to be heard in appealing to British opinion on a matter of British policy in colonies outside the Union of South Africa involves a concession to the British people to criticise or comment on his own Union policy, because Great Britain has enormous interests in Africa, namely, three Crown Colonies, a mandated territory, three Protectorates contiguous to the Union (Basutoland, Swaziland and Bechuanaland) and an Indian problem.

Under the circumstances we welcome the new platform thus created; for the matter of a general African policy, including that of the Union, is now placed on a wider foundation than heretofore. Our concern is purely for the other non-White races who come under direct British tutelage, in that we wish them to be spared from undergoing the lot that is ours.

It is necessary first to examine the grounds on which General Hertzog justifies his appeal, These are four:--
i. That his policy is the only policy that is calculated to secure White dominance as against Black dominance.
ii. That his is the only policy that will create goodwill in the hearts of local Euro­peans towards the Blacks.
iii. It is the policy found by the experience of Europeans on the spot to be the best.
iv. The effect of a contrary policy else­where in Africa will react with unfavourable repercussion on his Native policy in the Union.
This, I think, is a fair summary of what General Hertzog and his Cabinet colleague Mr. P. Grobler, Minister of Lands, gave out to the world twelve months ago in support of their appeal to the British public.
In reply thereto I submit that:
i. The Union Native policy referred to is based on a foundation of repression and as such cannot guarantee the security wanted. The Africans are too virile a race to be governed permanently by the mere force of machine guns and police. Repression, besides, is contrary to all considerations of moral and ethical principles. European domination will last only if founded on righteousness, for, of a truth, righteousness exalteth a nation.
Anent this my Conference resolved that:--
"Any legislation based on the principle of differentiation on the grounds of Race, Colour, or Creed, will in the end prove disastrous to our Country."
ii. Only the backward and unthinking sections of South African Whites are likely to be pleased with a policy of barefaced repression. Happily, there are many liberal-minded Whites in our country, not by any means Negrophilists, who honestly believe in giving Justice and a square deal to the Blacks, and to whom the present policy of repression is repellent.
iii. During the last half-a-century the policy of repression as practised by the three Northern Provinces of Transvaal, Natal, and the Orange Free State has failed to justify itself. The policy of the Cape Province with its liberal tradition supplies a direct negation to the contention of General Hertzog.
iv. The effect of a liberal British policy in other African colonies is exactly what is needed as an education to a young Dominion to correct dangerous experimentation on mistaken lines of policy.
So much for the point of view of General Hertzog.

The non-Whites of South Africa have their reasons for urging that the policy of the present Union Government be not imitated in the other British possessions in Africa.

1. The South Africa Act of Union is based on a Colour Bar clause that precludes all Non-Europeans from being eligible to become members of Parliament.

2. This Colour Bar in the constitution is called "Segregation" and when translated into practice it means the repression of all Non-Europeans in every conceivable form, being used as a lever to curtail Native freedom of movement, to deny the Natives the rights of trading in their areas, to cripple their education grants, and generally to deny them  the  common human rights and privileges of equality of opportunity in economic development,  undermining all fairplay. It originates from the Transvaal, Natal and the Orange Free State where the ideals of ruling policy are under predomi­nantly un-British and often anti-British influences. Since the consummation of Union, when it was fondly hoped that the old Cape Colony policy would tend to liberalise the Northern Provinces, it has steadily over­whelmed the Cape, giving birth to a perfect code of consistent repression and Native disabilities such as the following:--

3. The Native Land Act (1913) under which the European population of one and a half millions is allotted more than 80 per cent of the total land in the Union, while the Native population of five and a half millions gets less than 20 per cent. Under another Act of 1927 the Government has taken the revolutionary procedure of calling in all Native title-deeds, in order to introduce a number of fresh restrictions on ownership and Native rights in the disposal of their lands. The latter Act has produced an alarm among the Natives that has resulted in a series of lost appeals in all the local courts; and a desperate and final appeal has now been noted in, and accepted by, the Privy Council where it may be opened for hearing, if the necessary funds can be raised by the Natives to proceed with the case.

Under the Land and Agricultural State Bank that disburses upwards of ten million pounds to which Black and White jointly contribute by taxation, the right to get any money is restricted by a Colour Bar to White alone: "To qualify for an advance in first mortgage the applicant (and his wife, if married) must be European."

4. Pass Laws. The Transvaal relic of martial law during war and peace, in the shape of Pass Laws, has remained as an anachronism of medieval persecution down to our present day: when a Native, only because he is a Native, may be required to carry about his person as many as twelve different legal documents in order to avoid being imprisoned when challenged by the police. Instead of a diminution of this semi-barbarous system in a time of civilization we behold rather an aggravation of it. As a corollary of it the Government has recently enacted another law to empower its officials to remove "any Native from any place to any other place" for any reason, and at any time! Truly a law of the jungle, and one of Might is Right.

5. Masters and Servants Law. This law enables the Transvaal farmers to repudiate a contract entered into with a Native servant and then to turn round and imprison that servant if he refuses to serve, notwithstanding the farmer's dishonest repudiation of his own contract. It further institutes punishment by lashing--surely a barbaric anachronism!

6. The Colour Bar Act (Mines and Works Act 1911, Amendment Act 1926) closes all skilled occupations to Natives. This is the notorious law that shook all Christendom with dismay when it was forced through Parliament five years ago in the teeth of universal execration on the part of conscientious people; since when it has made South Africa a byword in civilisation, so that nowa­days we are often greeted overseas with the stigmatic insult: "Oh! you are from South Africa, the land of colour bars, are you?"
Apropos this I attach the following resolutions from my conference:--
(a) "That this Conference desires to enter its emphatic protest against the Colour Bar Act, because it was deliberately aimed at depriving, and does in fact deprive, certain sections of the community of their inherent right of earning an honest livelihood in accordance with the capacity with which Almighty God has endowed them, and thus driving them into poverty, misery and crime." And on the "Civilised Labour" policy--the corollary of the Colour Bar Act whereby the Government seeks to rule out all non-Whites from skilled employment:--
(b) "That the 'Civilised Labour' policy of the Government is cruel and unjust, because it has thrown out of work and impoverished large numbers of Non-Europeans; it has closed many avenues of employment hitherto open to them, besides placing a heavy burden on the whole country in the form of additional taxation to subsidise the policy."

7. Industrial Conciliation Act 1924. No Native industrial organisation has the legal recognition accorded to European trades unions under this law. Therefore, so far as the Native worker is concerned, there can be no such thing as collective bargaining, whatever his just grievances may be.

8. Direct Taxation. Under the Poll Tax law the great majority of Natives are called upon to pay a tax altogether disproportionate to their earnings. Details of this may be seen in a small pamphlet that I produced early this year (1931) entitled Native Taxation being my evidence before a Government Commission on Native economic conditions; and in this it will be noticed that this tax makes unconscionable inroads into the earnings of most Bantu people. To-day this brutal tax constitutes the most heart-rending single grievance among the Union Natives as a whole.
On this, my Conference resolved:-- "That in view of the great contribution being made by Natives--through their labour--to the wealth of the Country, and to the fact of their contributing largely also-through indirect taxation, in common with other sections of the population,--this Confer­ence registers its emphatic protest against Act No. 41 of 1925 which re-affirms the principle of direct poll-tax--a form of taxation which is considered in all civilised countries as oppres­sive and repressive . . and asks for its repeal."

9. Taxation of Boys. Young boys of eighteen are legally compelled to pay this Poll Tax of one pound per head per annum along with their fathers; and as magistrates are allowed to judge from appearance, this tax is being collected from many boys well under the age of eighteen--a painful experience for many Black fathers.

10. The Poll Tax Receipt has, further, been made a kind of pass, so that when a Native fails to exhibit it to a policeman on being challenged, he is prosecuted on a criminal charge and is liable to imprisonment. Draconian legislation, this.

11. The Taxation of Natives is also used as an indirect means of compulsion to labour in the service of Europeans. For example, one proposed Bill framed by the present Minister for Justice suggests an additional tax of five pounds per annum on Native males not under contract of service. This is in direct conflict with the principles laid down by the International Conference on Forced Labour at Geneva, 1929. (This bill has now become an Act.)
My Conference accordingly resolved:-- "This Conference records its emphatic protest against the Native Servants Contract Bill which is tantamount to the introduction of Forced Labour in South Africa, and is designed to keep the Natives as helots on the White farms."

12. Taxation of Native Blankets. The excessive "protective" duty of 25 per cent on imported blankets that are an indispensable article of apparel among rural Natives, is an instance of the cruel heaviness of indirect taxation of the Native.

13. Old Age Pensions Colour Bar. Old Age Pensions are paid every month to European old men but not to Bantu old men. On the contrary, the Bantu aged men are compelled to pay the universal Native Poll Tax till the day of their death if, in the judgment of the magistrate, they happen to have enough cattle.
"The Conference appeals to the Govern­ment to eliminate from the Old Age Pension Laws the racial discrimination which pre­cludes the Bantu people from participating in the benefits conferred upon other sections of the Community."

14. Native Education Colour Bar. The funds for the education of European, Coloured and Indian children are allocated out of the ordinary government revenue to which the Natives jointly contribute; but the Natives are made to pay for their education separately out of their own pocket from a special fund raised by themselves alone. Even these allocations have now been amazingly cut down with the result that Native education has had to remain stationary since 1925. Further spasmodic "cuts" have lately reduced the salaries of many Transvaal Native teachers to the miserable figure of two pounds ten shillings per month, while in the same Prov­ince the primary education of European child­ren costs the State thirteen pounds thirteen shillings and ninepence per head per annum, that of Coloured children, six pounds per head, but that of Native children one pound seventeen shillings. In one of my books ("The Segregation Fallacy") I have shown that the South African Government juggles its funds in such a way that part of European education is somehow paid for out of Native taxation. The Conference accordingly resolved:-- "That the inadequacy of educational facilities provided for Non-European children constitutes the greatest factor in hampering the economic development of South Africa. This Conference, therefore, impresses upon the Government that there can be no satisfactory progress unless there is a substantial increase in the grants by the Government to the Provincial Councils under the Financial Relations Act, and that the grants to Native Education be placed on a per capita basis, as those of European, Coloured and Indian children."

15. Agriculture is expressly barred from the operation of the Wage Act of 1925 under which a minimum wage for a given industry may be determined. Many farmers pay wages in kind only, and some take advantage of ignorant Natives by paying their One Pound Poll Tax and binding them for a year at a time.
16. Parliamentary Representation. The Natives of the three Northern Provinces have no representation in Parliament, and the Cape Native franchise is now threatened.

Accordingly, "The Conference reaffirms its condemnation of the Native Bills, and the Coloured Persons' Rights Bill, and earnestly requests the Government to summon a round-table conference of accredited leaders of the European race on the one hand--and of Non-Europeans on the other, to discuss the political relationship of White and non-White in South Africa."

17. Curfew Regulations make it a criminal offence for a Native male to be abroad without a night pass after 9 p.m. (in most towns). There is now a move to include Native women also under this restriction in the Transvaal. In the Cape the females are included.
"In view of the fact that the Pass System is regarded as a badge of slavery, the Conference respectfully but strongly urges the Govern­ment to take steps in the direction of the total abolition of the system from the Statute Books."

18. Security of Tenure is not obtainable by Natives who build their own houses in urban locations.

19. Excessive Rents. The houses of urban Natives are in most cases built by European labour at trade union rates of pay. Perforce the rents become excessively high for current Native wages. If Native labour were used (as at Bloemfontein) this complaint would vanish. This unwisdom, strange to say, is repeated in town after town, crushing the Native between the pincers of high costs in building and low wages in industry wherewith to pay rent.

20. Transport. Lack of adequate transport facilities to and from work and the high cost of existing transport are perennial complaints that stand for adjustment by sympathetic town councils.

21. Justice. In Law Courts much miscar­riage of justice is due to the inefficiency of White interpreters. This can be obviously remedied by the substitution of Native interpreters of whom many are available.

22. Disproportionate sentences and fines against Natives in the magistrates' courts are difficult to understand outside of the com­mon prejudice   against colour, because although the money scale must have been based on incomes received by Europeans one would expect the arbiter to take into account the fact that the income of a Native is at most only a third of that of a White man in any given industry.

23. The Jury System should be altogether dispensed with in cases involving Black and White contestants because the killing of Blacks by Whites in South Africa has become alarmingly common and the offending Euro­peans tend to come off with unjustifiably light sentences. One might instance, the notorious Barberton case (1925) where two. Whites were only fined twenty pounds each for beating a Native to death; the Standerton case of 1924 where a European was given only six weeks' imprisonment for tying a Native girl of sixteen to a waggon wheel and whip­ping her to death; and last month when a Nylstroom farmer was only fined twenty-five pounds for shooting a Native dead, pleading as his excuse that he intended only to frighten the Native with his loaded gun. Anent this the Johannesburg Star comments: "If the police were to compile and publish a complete list of fatalities of this kind, their number would stagger even the apparently callous South African countryside."

24. Medical Services for Natives are hope­lessly inadequate. In South Africa hospitals provide one bed for every 334 Europeans and one bed for every 2,231 Non-Europeans.

25. The Colour Bar may be further illus­trated by the fact that the following are criminal offences only when committed by Natives:--
(a.) Breach of contract of service.
(b.) Striking for higher wages.
(c.) Failure to pay tax.
(d.) Failure to produce tax receipt on demand by the police.
(e.) All breaches of the Pass Laws.

26. Projected Legislation. Projected bills and legislation seem to indicate further hardening towards the Natives on the part of the South African government; especially with reference to the old Native franchise in the Cape Province which is now threatened with the process of "Segregation." This proposal has been characterised by the Churches of South Africa as a "denial of our common faith." "We believe that rights to full citizen­ship in any country are not dependent on race or colour, but on men's fitness to discharge the responsibilities which such citizenship involves. On the one hand, the principle of trusteeship forbids that the determining voice in government should be given to those who are still uncivilised and ignorant (for otherwise the stronger abdicates from his trusteeship):

on the other hand, it requires a full recognition that as individuals and peoples progress, trusteeship should pass into partnership. We would emphasize the imperative need of regarding from a definitely Christian stand­point all questions which concern the relations between the different races in our land. The only policy which can succeed or survive is that which is in accord with the will of God."

A distinguished Transvaal Native leader, R. V. Selope Thema spoke four years ago to a meeting of the Cape Native voters in the following touching manner:--"I have never been a voter myself, but we in the Transvaal have always aspired to getting the franchise on the same terms as you. Our grievance against the English is that they did not straightway give us the vote after conquering the Dutch in 1901. For that reason we feel much more grieved against the English than against the Dutch, for we entertained high expectations of getting it. At Vereeniging the Boers characteristically declined to discuss the vote and asked for a postponement of the consideration of it in the full knowledge that they would meantime educate and convert the British to their own illiberal view. When responsible    government was eventually granted, the British were not manly enough to renew the question. That is where we lost our opportunity. You are very fortunate for your Cape Native franchise constitutes the foundation of the Black man's upward progress in every way. You hold this right in trust for all of us Bantu of South Africa. Whether General Hertzog denies it to us in the North, please remember that you are keeping it in trust for us. Stick fast to it. If you lightly let it slip from your possession the future historian will condemn and execrate your bones long after you are dead in your graves."

Advocate W. H. Stuart speaking at Grahamstown four years ago characterised the Premier's Native vote proposals as being a "deliberate, brutal annihilation of all Native aspirations forever by the complete crushing of the effecting Cape vote under a smoke screen of 'Segregation' that had nothing whatever to do with it."

Dr. W. E. B. du Bois, the famous Negro author, rightly holds that: "In modern indus­trial civilisation a disfranchised working class is worse than helpless: it will be diseased; it will be criminal; it will be ignorant; it will be the plaything of mobs; and it will be insulted by caste restrictions."

It is universally admitted that the Cape Native franchise has never been misused. Even General Hertzog does not intend to abolish it or emasculate it or "segregate" it for that reason. In fact he has no reason against it except the colour prejudice and fear of Bantu civilisation that rule the backveld voters. The Native   franchise with its concomitant equality of citizenship, far from imparting disrespect for Europeans in the Cape Native, has been responsible for developing an unchanging loyalty to the British, reverence for the Union Jack as the emblem of undi­luted justice, and an affection for British governmental institutions that induced the African Paramount Potentates of Basutoland, Pondoland, and Bechuanaland spontaneously to offer their unconquered territories to the protection of Great Britain. The value of this Native vote, according to Leonard Barnes, has been that it compels attention to Native interests where everything else fails; it secures education, land and freedom from Pass Laws;
it guarantees better treatment for the inhabitants of (he rural reserves; it ensures peace and contentment; it confers a status of dignity in national affairs; it has proved to be the key experiment in the whole world, so that though it may not be the absolute ideal, yet it is the best of the present available practical possibilities.

27. Our Recommendations. With regard to your African Colonies and Protectorates out­side of the Union of South Africa, we desire to urge, for the good of both the non-White inhabitants therein and of the mother-country, that Great Britain should adopt the policy of keeping her direct hold on the Protectorates contiguous to the Union;
namely, Basutoland, Swaziland, and Bechuanaland. Your power of protection over these and the other British possessions in North-Eastern Africa should be firmly tightened rather than relaxed.

28. Do not be in any haste in conferring self-government in any of your Colonies. We Blacks much prefer direct rule under the Imperial Government; for we still look to Great Britain as our fountain of justice and regard her as our paramount protector. Hence we are anxious that the legal right of appeal to the Privy Council on extra-mural questions and constitutional disputes be preserved intact as it obtains under the present laws.
Hereanent my Conference resolved: --
(a) "That the constitutional relations between His Majesty's British Government and His Majesty's Dominion of South Africa should be retained; and, further, that the British Judicial Committee of His Majesty's Privy Council shall be retained as constituted, and that it shall exercise its functions of supervising the Empire Laws."
(b) "That His Majesty the King shall not abandon his right of veto under the advice of His Majesty's Privy Council or his British Ministers."
29. We wish to see your African Colonies treated and governed more liberally than we are under the Union. In this connection we call your attention to the report made in August 1930 by Mr. Water before the Mandates Commission on behalf of the Union's trusteeship of the South-West Africa Mandated Territory, in which it was stated that
(a) The taking away of Native land without compensation was "a perfectly usual practice in South Africa;" and
(b) That the money spent on European education was ten times that spent on Native education.
Referring to these confessions, M. Rappard appositely remarked that "The mandate system represented a protest against the tendency to allow the Black to go to the wall." Evidently the local policy has yet to vindicate its claim to being liberal towards indigenous Africans.

30. High Commissioners and other representative officials we like to see selected, for your Colonies, from men in Great Britain rather than from outside. We, therefore, appreciate the creation of a special High Commissioner for the Protectorates that surround the Union, as distinct from Union officials.

31. New Markets are awaiting you in all Africa as well as in South Africa if only you undertake to help civilise the submerged scores of millions of Black people who are at present largely neglected. Once these Africans are advanced in education of every line they will furnish new markets of raw manufactures and primary products and become heavy buyers of British produced goods. Africa holds out infinite possibilities in these respects that have yet to be tapped.

32. Some South African Theories. Expressions of opinion by recent writers both Dutch and English in South Africa have gone to show that the forces of justice, notwith­standing the leadership of the present Cabinet, are slowly but surely gaining ground on the regiments of repression in discussions over the question of White and Black race-relationship.

33. Many Whites in South Africa have openly attempted to justify the policy of injustice on the ground of self-preservation. They are however steadily losing ground; and I have been sent here to help further diminish their remaining ground such as it is. One may well ask at this juncture: What is the explana­tion, or probable explanation, of this South African mentality of inflexible prejudice?

Ordinarily in other parts of the world this resolves itself into a social class question with all the antagonisms associated with the clash between the aristocracy and middle classes, and as between traders and unskilled labourers, each class being jealous for its group in regard to its security of income, comfort, monopoly, privilege, social isolation and exclusive intermarriage,--constantly vig­ilant and fearing any loss of these. Now, the indigenous African started by being the pro­letariat upon whose unusually cheap labour in farms, industry, mines and domestic service the whole superstructure of White civilisation rested. White capital, brains, organizing power, administration and enterprise made the Whites inevitably both physical conquerors and spiritual guides to the Blacks. The situation was then complicated by the factor of differences in colour, social habits, living standards, primitive historical traditions, economic competition and the tacit jealousy against Blacks being seen or advertised in England in any capacity superior to that of tending a specimen set of Friesland cattle or grooming a rhinoceros.

Another complicating factor has been the so-called 2,000 years' theory: namely, if the White man has taken 2,000 years to reach his present stage of civilisation, the Black man must wait for his 2,000 years before claiming equality of treatment. Yes, if you consider only the heathen as they subsist in their primitive kraal environment; but not their sons who to-day are the "livery-attired skilful Black drivers of Chrysler Imperial eighty sedans through the thick of Johannesburg traffic, attending in full evening dress a soiree dance in one of their numerous Johannesburg night clubs, or listening to a White Communist denouncing the government, the capitalist, the missionary and labour recruiter."

Most of our "baases" who term themselves "Afrikaaners" are behind the times in their ideas on race questions. Socially, they are the most lovable and kindly Europeans if you are fortunate enough to strike an understanding with them. You can then depend more reli­ably on them than on any other group of Whites in the country. On the contrary they are most adamant, unforgetting, unforgiving, bitter, religious, vengeful, hard-headed and unsympathetic while they are unconverted on the racial question. They then keep you on an inexorable cat and dog life of persecution. Our experience, however, is that even dogs cease to attack the cats once they are domesticated, trained and educated.

34. The basic policy of our present masters is that the African should be precluded from civilisation, forced to develop along his primitive lines, stopped where he presently is, and pushed back to where he was a century ago. Now, the African mind once moved from its old anchorage by European money, machinery, bicycles, clothes, gramophones, cannot be moved back to where it formerly was. And it seems rather illogical to fear the African and at the same time preach that he is an inferior and a barbarian. Fear is a perilous guide in human affairs. It blinds men's eyes to truth and justice. It puts its sponsors down as beyond the reach of reason, for if the European can only maintain his civilisation by keeping his foot on the neck of the African, then he has already surrendered his mental superiority. And a mentality of this nature, if encouraged, will react in a demoralising fashion on any ruling race that puts it into practice; because it will deaden its conscience on all ideas of right and wrong where Blacks are concerned inasmuch as it will regard them as being animals of a sub-human species.

35. This is exactly why the question of the Native franchise requires a liberal spirit and a broad mind unhampered by parochial prejudice; and it is fortunate that under the Union Act the final decision on any change in the Cape Native franchise rests with the British public and the Imperial Parliament, according to the Letters of Instruction to the Governor-General of South Africa signed by the late King Edward VII. We repose our faith on this final reference to England and this is where we hope to appeal to you to help us some day in the future whensoever any change is sought which may be detrimental to the interests of the Cape Native voters. At present we would heartily welcome the enfranchisement of the Natives in Transvaal, Natal, and Orange Free State if that is done without prejudice to the old franchise in the Cape. We want no change whatever in the Cape Native franchise and it is as well that in a question of such fundamental importance no narrow-minded solution is permitted; because no nation to-day can live in a water-tight compartment, shut off from the life of the world's ideals. For "segregation" is a narrow-minded formula which, in the words of its protagonists, "aims directly and without equivocation at a complete divorcement of the Black and White races on every plane of human activity." While segregation is a coun­terfoil to equal rights, the question of equal rights in economic and political development is a burning question vitally stirring the inmost passions of all non-White communities in the present-day world, especially in India and the United States of America. This world aspect of it appears great odds even against Mr. Grobler's resolve to apply segregation "with   Divine   guidance   from above" (November 1930).

My conference is grateful for the London Times reply made over the signatures of H. G. Wells, Dr. Furse the Bishop of St. Albans, Lord Sanderson, Lord Olivier, and others directed to General Hertzog and Mr. Grobler, in the course of which they properly remarked that "The experience of history proves that the ideal of equal rights is the best ultimate safeguard for fair treatment. The results of the policy at present followed in South Africa are more useful as a warning than as an example."

These results are such that General Byron, a prominent South African Member of Parliament, in the course of a public speech delivered last January observed that--he had found during his recent visit to Europe that South Africa was engaging much unfavourable comment in the world because of her Native policy which, if continued, might result in the punishment of South Africa by the League of Nations in the form of an economic boycott. He was no Negrophilist but he felt it was wrong to oppress the Natives by denying them the rights to education, to justice, to the freedom of labour, to live within a natural national organisation, to habitation, and to freedom of movement.

36. We too think the attitude unfair that regards the Native as "A teeming swarming enemy," the Native first and last an "enemy" with anti-civilisation proclivities (according to the 1929 "Kaffir Manifesto" signed by three South African Cabinet Ministers), with anti-White intentions, with anti-Government ambitions, longing day in, night out, by plot to overturn good government in order to rule the Whites and wreck their pent-up vengeance of them. Such a distorted picture of my loyal people is distressing, incredible, slanderous. If it be a genuine representation of what the secessionists make of us, then we would like to revert to the direct rule of the Imperial Government when the day of South African secession arrives. To be charitable, we may take it that this is not meant to be a true picture but an intentional travesty due to electioneering run amok. Unfortunately the backveld voters who have placed the Government in power take these manifestoes seriously and not as a mere aberration of political propaganda. But in each case the life and death interests of the Natives lie between the hammer of the Cabinet Ministers and the anvil of their electorate. The Black man upon whose labour the whole edifice of primary industries,--gold, diamonds, coal, agricul­ture,--is built, fails to comprehend why his reward should just be this sort of vilification along with humiliating laws calculated to make him a helot in the country of his birth. How, he asks, did Great Britain abandon him so mercilessly? Can there be any Christian religion in people who set up an "Anti-Negrophilist Association" for the purpose of counteracting all movements working for the improvement of the Black man's lot in South Africa? Can Chesterton be correct when he states that "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried"? Do our rulers follow the Christian ethic and morals in their governing? Are we to become Christians while our White mentors turn pagan? Then it were fruitless to preach Christian principles to men who do not accept them as capable of application to their statesmanship. These men can only be brought to submit to it by the force of a world public opinion which has grown too strong for them as it has about such things as bull-fights, duelling, cock-fights and slavery.

37. Conclusion. It is this world public opinion that we wish to see established in Great Britain and in the League of Nations;
for the White race has gone to Africa to stay for good or for ill, and will not leave Africa, and the Black race cannot leave Africa even if it would. The two must learn to live together in neighbourliness and friendship. An urgent task before Christian men and women in Great Britain is the creation and enforcement of a Christian public opinion on all matters connected with White and Black in Africa. The grant of Union in 1909 did not divest Britain of all moral influence over Native Affairs by reason of the solemn mutual pledges then given as between the Crown and the South African Whites.

A test proposition will be the fate of the Cape Native franchise in case the worst should happen under the pressure of anti-Native agitation that may cause this franchise to undergo a mutilation tantamount to destruc­tion. The treatment of the so-called subject races ceases to be the private concern of this or that colonising power and becomes in an important sense an international responsibility.

It is on record, says Leonard Barnes, that the late King Nicholas of Montenegro once boiled in oil a Prime Minister who had the temerity to oppose his wishes. That is not long ago, but in the interval a change has taken place. Civilised opinion has drawn an invisible line, and Europe at least understands that human oil-boilings lie on the wrong side of it. One may say that Europe is now a place where such things do not happen. Perhaps Africa one day may become a place where it is equally impossible even for a civilised race to conduct a policy of repression at the expense of a subject race without provoking at least a chorus of protests from other civilised races. In such an event a solemn protest addressed to the South African Union Government by the British Government conjointly with the governments of the other Dominions would be an impressive gesture and might conceivably not only improve the lot of the Bantu people but also serve to overrule and remedy the general world problem of Black and White race relationships.

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