In a world of rapidly changing circumstances and the inevitable adaptation they call for from the Whites, this speech is of cardinal importance. Adv. Vorster emphasised the fact that we as a nation must have strong faith. We must believe that we as a nation have a vocation in Africa - a vocation, though seemingly impossible, to lead in Africa. For that very reason, though the future may seem unpredictable, there is hope for the future. We have a role to play in Africa. Africa has been done an enormous wrong in that it has been told that its original character was not good enough, and that it should rather change. In this respect the White man of South Africa has never wronged the Black. We are of Africa and as such we as Whites have a particular role to play in Africa. This does not mean that we should sacrifice our principles, not even when the Prime Ministers says that we shound render ourselves acceptable to Africa. Mr. Vorster stressed the fact that our multi-racial police of separate development can be sold to Africa. In this way we can fulfil our vocation. If we are willing to do all these things, we shall be enabled to fulfil our vocation, provided that we as Whites can stand our ground at all times and under all circumstances.

Mr. Chairman, colleagues, Rapportryers, ladies and gentlemen.

In spite of the fact that I found it very difficult in the first place to be here at all and in the second place to be here in time, I am nevertheless thankful that I can be with you here tonight. I have been looking around me and I am glad that so many Afrikaner men and women are rendering a service to this organisation, and that here we have the type of people South Africa can trust at all times. And I want to tell you as one grows older, one worries less about oneself, in fact one has less reason to worry about oneself, because the ideals one had for one's life, the things one strived for, one has attained in some degree or other. Actually there are few things left for one to look forward to and it is well that the Creator intended it so that the time comes in a man's life when he pushes himself more and more to the background, in order to spend the time which he may have left on thoughts about his children and the children of others, about the youth and the toddlers of our nation.

I say it is well that it should be so, it is well that one is called at this stage to give an account not of what one expects for oneself, but of the heritage one leaves the younger generation, one's children and grand children and the generations to come. And this is the case especial world like the one we are living in; especially if one lives in unpredictable times — and I believe there has never been a time when things have been as capricious and as unpredictable as now — especially in these where we live under the banner headlines of sensational news n And the bigger the headlines are, the more careful one should be. Such are the times we are living in. Furthermore we have probably never experienced a time when people have asked so many questions on the one hand - when there has been such uncertainty about matters on the hand - and there have been so many bright people who know all the answers on the other hand. The only problem is that these bright people are never asked to solve all the problems. And if we should ask them to do so, things will probably turn out as illustrated by the story of the old lady who complained to her neighbour that she was worried about her husband because he was in the habit of paying particular nod beautiful women. Then the worldly-wise neighbour said: "Oh, don't worry about that, it happens to all old men. They make me think of my dog. For years he has been chasing every motorcar, but if lie should ever catch one, he would not know what to do with it." There are many people who will not know what to do with the motorcar once they have caught it. The name of one such a person was Spinola 1. And you know how that episode ended.

I say we live in a world of great uncertainty on the one hand many people who profess they know all the answers on the other hand. That is why I find my job so interesting: nobody has more advisers than I have. Not a day passes without my receiving loads of advice. And now I am digressing, but it is worthwhile nevertheless. Speaking of my job. The loveliest letter I have ever received, and I do not think I have ever received a lovelier one, was a letter from a boy in Std. 5. I can remember each word as he wrote it. He began: "Uncle, I am a stout National. I went to visit my uncle in Wolmaransstad. They have neighbours but the neighbours belong to the United Party. The neighbours' little boy cursed you. Then I told him that if he cursed you again, I would fix him. Then he cursed you again. Then I fixed him." On many occasions I have wished that I had the people who could "fix" others. Be that as it may, I return to my advice. A man wrote to me from the Strand to tell me how I should handle a certain very delicate international situation and he spelled it out for me - pages of it - and then concluded with the remark: "I am competent to advise you, because I have the brains at a great leader myself, only I do not have the nerves." And if you look at today's world you can take it from me - and I think I know something about it - that nerves play a very important part in the world we live in today and without them it would be virtually impossible to fulfil one's task and one's function. We live in a world where governments are overthrown regularly; we live in a world where leaders are destroyed, as has happened in the United States of America, 2 as if a spirit of cannibalism has taken possession of the people; we live in a world where the commodities we accept as a matter of course, that is the commodities we must have for everyday existence, have become strategic material; we live in a world where blackmail, blatant blackmail, has become a part of the accepted and normal political activity. One can elaborate. This is the world in which South Africa finds herself and if Amin 3 had not noticed it first, I could have said that South Africa is situated at the centre of this world; the rest is spread around her. However, as Amin noticed it first, I cannot say it.

The question arises - and this is the question in the minds of our youth - What does the future hold in store for you? I have often been asked: "Is it worth the effort?" I want to tell you in the first place that if there has ever been a time when you must show faith, when you must live your faith, when your faith must be a steadfast assurance, then it is now: without it you will perish. Without faith nations would perish. I still remember the time when I was a boy. At that time the concept of faith and everything it entails was somewhat unknown to me. I could not really visualise it for myself and I could not make it a part of myself, until I read what someone had said: "Faith is in fact the force which impells you to plant a tree today even if you know that the world will end tomorrow." That is the meaning of faith - to be diligent till the end. To have so much faith in the future that even if you carry the know­ledge in your heart that the world will end tomorrow, still to be willing today to plant a tree. I want to tell you that it is not necessary that you should think or believe that your world is going to end; on the contrary, the message that I want to bring you tonight is not a message of despair or pessimism, it is a message of hope, and of dedication. Because I want to tell you young people here tonight that if there has ever been a time that I believed in the vocation of the Afrikaner and in the calling of South Africa, then it is now.

The future probably looks dark, it looks unpredictable, it looks ugly to you. In spite of this I want to tell you that if this nation had to perish, it would have perished long ago. However this nation has a vocation to fulfil, not only in South Africa, but in Africa. And although I may not be there to see it, you will see it happen; you will experience that the vocation that is set apart for South Africa, even if it seems highly impossible to you at the moment, is to lead Africa. I do not have the slightest doubt about it. And you know that Africa has been wronged by a world who has never understood Africa, who is not capable of understanding Africa, because one has to be born of Africa like us to be able to do so. It is only people whose cradles have stood here for generations, it is only people whose graves will be here, who will understand this. You have just seen the proof again and you have just experienced it again. The greatest wrong the world has ever done Africa, was to place on the shoulders of the people and of the leaders of Africa, responsibili­ties which they could not uphold, to expect of them to take upon them responsibilities which they do not understand. And we, I think, learned the lesson. I think we have taken upon us the task to educate; we are still busy with it and will be at it for years to come. I believe that we did not make that mistake and that we shall not make it. But the other crime that was perpetrated against Africa in so many of its countries, is that people bluffed Africa into believing that it was not good enough as the Lord had created it, and that it should be something else. We have made many mistakes and we will make many more, but I am thankful that we did not make this particular mistake: to rob the Blacks amongst us of their national character, to despise what is their own and humiliate them in that way, to reduce them to persons without roots who see no future for themselves. I can go on citing examples, but I only mention these to illustrate the point that as I am standing here before you tonight, I believe that we have a vocation to fulfil and that vocation reaches far beyond the borders of South Africa.

Now it is true that the world's hostility is flaring up more vehemently against us. It is flaring up more vehemently against us because they Communists arc the best informed people in the world, because they know that we are making progress, because they believe what I am saying here tonight and they would do anything in their power to wreck it and destroy it. I have no doubt about that. Now we have tried for years to make ourselves acceptable to Europe and to the USA, to sell ourselves to other countries, especially to countries with a Western view­point. We have failed. We cannot sell ourselves to Europe or to the West, they do not want to buy us as we are and we are not willing to change. For let me tell you now that we have three primary principles and they must remain primary at all times. There are three principles that we will have to uphold in future if we wish to fulfil our calling. Whatever we still have to do in this multiracial country of ours — and there are many things we will still have to do — let there be no doubt about it that if we work on a multi-racial basis, we shall have to see certain things to their logical conclusion. If we want to live like honest people, there are three things we cannot allow to happen, apart from the consequences they lead to, because we would then betray our calling and be unworthy of it. The first thing is that we must not let go of political power over ourselves or share it with any other nation, be that nation sympathetic or malevolent - irrespective of colour. Do not let go of political power. In the second place you must safeguard your identity, because in the preservation of your identity lies a major element of the vocation you must fulfil. And in the third place you must be willing at all times to be firm in the maintenance of discipline and order in this world of violence and anarchy.

If you fail to do this you render the fulfilment of your vocation im­possible. But a part of the fulfilment of your vocation is that you must not place yourself on a throne: what right do you have to lord it over others, to suggest that you are entitled to things while others are not, that you are chosen to rule and to make decisions others may not make? Indeed you have the right to differentiate and therefore to safeguard your identity; you have the right to differentiate and therefore to hold your political government in your own hands; but when it comes to mere blatant discrimination, you must reflect earnestly and decide whether you as God's creature are still fulfilling your calling. I say we have tried for years to render ourselves acceptable to the Swiss, to the Dutch, and to other European nations and we did not succeed. On the contrary, as far as their official stand is concerned, there is a visible toughening towards instead of a mitigation of South Africa. And that is why I believe that if you want to safeguard South Africa, if you want to make it possible for you to fulfil your vocation, then you must be willing to and try to make yourself acceptable to Africa which brought you forth and of which you are a part. And this I want to tell you, the youth, here tonight, without going into detail. You must simply accept my word for it. Our multiracial policy of separate development can be sold to Africa and it can be made acceptable to Africa. And I want to assure you that it shall be made acceptable to Africa. This I say in spite of what is being written and said and in spite of decisions that are being made at present. It cannot be stopped and if what we are trying to do here and what I outlined for you here finally catches on in Africa - and it will catch on - then it is not necessary for us to sell ourselves to Europe, because Europe will only climb onto the bandwagon saying that it does not have room for everyone who wants to climb onto it. I am fully aware that things cannot happen overnight, buttering up a person does not change things and will not make a person better than he is. It will take time, but it is our vocation. I do not need to spell out our problems for you here tonight: you know them as well as I do. But this I know. The Lord never places responsibilities on people who cannot bear them and we were given broad shoulders because the Lord knew in His mercy which problems we would meet with in Africa. It is our heritage; we have to bear it, we can bear it, and I believe we shall bear it. And if you look at the world around you today, you will notice how nations have to struggle to survive economically and how nations are sabotaged and undermined morally, how leaders are no longer heeding those things we still value. Should you not wonder at the fact that South Africa's economical stability is at present being admired by the world and at the fact that the Lord enriched our soil with gold which is heading at this very moment for the price of two hundred dollars an ounce, in spite of efforts by the world's major powers to destroy it, to remove it from the world's monetary system, to make it into a piece of worthless metal? Not many years ago an influential American said to me, "What is gold without the backing of the dollar, it is a useless piece of metal." And I answered: "Far be it from me to say what will happen in the future, but beware of the day when the mighty dollar without the backing of gold will be nothing but a useless piece of paper and when it comes to making a choice between a worthless piece of metal and a worthless piece of paper, give me the metal any time." While the world seriously lacks discipline, we still have a high degree of discipline in spite of what is happening around us. I have been looking you over here tonight. I have already travelled the world a bit and read about it. There are few parts of the world if any where you will see a crowd of young people who are dressed so respectably and tastefully as the people present in this hall here tonight. Look at our children when they go to school. Our people still have respectability and taste although one does not want to blow one's own horn. My mother taught me from childhood that the Word says: "He who stands must be careful that he does not fall." We know that, but should we not be thankful that these things are still important to us? Does this not indicate that we still have a strong economy, a conviction or morality, a conviction that if it should be necessary and if we should come under fire, we shall vindicate our rights even if it is the last thing we do? There may be things which are not clear to you at this stage, but which will only become clear later. I am the person who has to bear the responsibility, who has to make the decisions. May the Lord only grant me the mercy that when we come under fire, I shall be able to tell the young men of South Africa that I have done everything in my power to avoid it, but that under those circumstances we have no alternative, we will have to take a stand, whatever the consequences. I say we have a vocation to fulfil in Africa and I close with a remark which I have made on many occasions, but which I feel I want to repeat to you here tonight. I have become aware of the fact that we have a calling not only because I am a person with faith or because I adjusted myself to it, but I also became aware of it because in the course of the years during which this responsibility has been mine, I have seen that one may plan certain things, that one may set a definite course, that one may hope to reach certain goals but that many things are added which one has not planned or organised as a human being. I have often seen doors open which men did not open, I have often seen doors open where one did not even suspect a door to be. Then one as God's creature - a humble creature - cannot but accept and believe that one has a calling and you, the youth of the East Rand, who represent the youth of South Africa, if you want to proceed and work in full awareness of your calling and if you want to work in that spirit not only to make South Africa great and strong, but also to enable her to fulfil her calling, then you have been greatly blessed and enjoy what South Africa offers us, you will enjoy it to your heart's content. I am glad to know that such is indeed the spirit which inspires you.

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1 General Antonio de Spinola overthrew the Portuguese government of Dr. Marcello Caetano on 25 April 1974 in a coup d'etat. In turn General Spinola handed over the government to General Francisco da Costa Gomes on 30 September 1974 because he, to use his own words, was resigning as he did not consider himself capable of diverting the Republic from chaos and anarchy and as Portugal was developing a false democracy. Cf. To the Point, 29.11.1974.

2 As a result of the Watergate scandal and ensuing pressure exercised upon him President Richard Nixon had to resign as president on 8 August 1974.

3 General Idi Amin is the president of Uganda.

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