Say It out Loud - The 1935 Presidential Address, Cape Town, 2nd January, 1935

From the book: Say It out Loud by Mohamed Adhikari

The 1935 Presidential Address, Cape Town, 2nd January, 1935 ¹

Another year has just closed, but the lapse of time really never ends, it is but the year that ends. The Old Year has again fallen into the abyss of time, and a new one has dawned upon the world. I feel sure you will join with me in hoping that the present year would bring brighter days "with sweeter manners and purer laws". Such periods as preens, one are a useful halting time, suggestive of thought. They bid us go through the process of stocktaking. They urge us to make a review of the past, and this is the task I propose to attempt tonight. I shall bring to your attention some of the events, which in relation to our past are signposts in our history, indicating the direction in which South African civilisation, are travelling.

Do these events breathe a deeper sense of humanitarianism and a fuller recognition of rights; are they nothing more or less than acts perpetuating the old injustices, and originating further fresh disabilities; do they increase the sum of our miseries or ease our burden, and lastly, do they connote progress or regression for South Africa as a whole ­ these are questions which will naturally arise in the course of our review.

As the review must begin somewhere, perhaps the period beginning 1924, and ending 1934, might be regarded as one forming a completed stage in our history.

It was in 1924, you'll remember, that General Hertzog made his famous pronouncement, that the Coloured people should be placed on a footing of equality with Europeans ­ educationally, economically, industrially and, of course, politically. We were told that he was a sincere man, and as he had undoubtedly displayed great determination in prosecuting the cause of his own people, there was justification for visualising a brighter future for the Coloured people. His was a message of hope, and the Coloured people, particularly in the Northern Provinces, hailed it with thankfulness and joy. They had been waiting anxiously for such a declaration of freedom, never, however, expecting that it would come from one who came from the Free State, where non-Europeans were treated as human chattels.

The old basis of relationship between white and black in the Cape Province, namely, that of " equal rights for all civilised men " , a basis founded upon common sense and reason, a basis which we hoped would be extended throughout the Union after 1902, was violently disrupted in 1910 by that iniquitous Act of Union with its foul blot. After that, as we know, the relationship between black and white even in the Cape Province, gradually changed. White communal psychology, moulded within the framework of that Constitution, also changed, and there was grave danger that the Transvaal basis of " no equality between black and white in Church or State " would eventually triumph. It was, therefore, a bold and courageous pronouncement of General Hertzog's at that perverse time, it meant breaking with the customs, traditions, laws and ideas of the entire North, even with those of his own Province, where racial prejudice was rabid.

Ten years have now passed and we shall bring under review some of the events that have occurred during that period and see what progress has been made by the Coloured people towards the realisation of that happy day, when white and black shall again stand on a footing of equality, educationally, economically, industrially and politically.

EDUCATION

The question what is a National Education? ­ is one that requires long and serious thought, and is outside the scope of this address. According to the Agenda, Mr. Van der Ross will deal fully on Friday night with the essential meaning and purpose of education. However, perhaps I may be permitted to state that in my opinion the aims of education are two in number. There is the utilitarian as well as the humanitarian aim; or in other words there is the bread and butter motive ­ with very little butter ­ as well as the soul-cultivating one. Which of these two aims is of more importance to Coloured people ­ man as a human soul or man as an economic hand ­ is not easily determined, and I shall leave the subject there for Mr. Van der Ross.

Tonight we are mainly concerned with endeavouring to find out what progress, if any, Coloured education has made since 1924. Unfortunately, I am not able to carry the inquiry beyond 1932, the year with which the last available statistics deal.

POPULATION

1932

European 1,000,000 1,859,000

Bantu 4,900,000 5,600,000

Asiatic 170,000 193,000

Mixed and Others 555,000 597,000

The cost of education other than Higher Education, for the whole Union was:

1924 ............................ £6,213,451

1932 ............................ £7,533,00

NUMBER OF CHILDREN AT SCHOOL

It is estimated that at least 20 per cent of the population should be at school, and that percentage is practically correct with respect to Europeans. On that basis of calculation, the number of non-European pupils who should have been in school in 1924 was 1,136,000 whereas the number was 262,000, leaving 874,000 non-European children without receiving any education. For 1932 the numbers were 1,260,000 and 403,000, leaving 857,000 without education. Still a sad state of affairs.

Take the figures, which are of more immediate interest to us, namely, those relating to Coloureds and Asiatics. For the year 1924 no separate statistics are available for these two races.

COLOUREDS AND ASIATICS

Pupils of school-going age: 1924 - 145,000, 1932 - 158,000; pupils at school: 1924 - 64,000, 1932 -107,000; pupils not at school: 1924 - 81,000, 1932 - 51,000.

Needless to say, it is a deplorable state of affairs when 50,000 Coloured children are still running about without receiving any school training. It does not redound to the glory of South Africa, and the inevitable consequences that must follow should make all honest men pause. Still, we must admit that much has been done since 1924, the number of pupils not in school having been reduced from 81,000 to 51,000.

Now take the Coloureds only for the year 1932, no statistics being available for 1924.

UNION

Total Coloured Population, 597,000; pupils of school-going age, 119,000; pupils at school, 89,000; pupils not at school, 30,000.

CAPE PROVINCE (ONLY)

1932

Coloured population, 536,000; pupils of school-going age, 107,800; pupils at school, 79,000; pupils not at school, 28,000.

This state of affairs deserves the attention of the Cape Province.

COST OF EDUATION ­ 1932

European ....................... £6,416,000

Non-European ................... £1,117,000

Total ........................... £7,533,000

NON-EUROPEAN

Cape Province ................... £736,000

Other Province ................... 381,000

Total ........................... £1,117,000

The figures speak for themselves, and need no comment of mine to emphasise the lack of educational facilities for Coloured children in the Union, when nearly six times as much money is spent on White education as on non-European.

To the credit, however, of the Cape Province it should be noted that with a Native population of 1,080,000, it spent in 1932 the sum of £356,000, while the other three Provinces with a Bantu population of 3,700,000 spent during the same year only £238,000.

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTS

Now, while some progress has been made in providing school accommodation for Coloured children, especially in the Cape Province ­ a Province that can be proud of its record of progress ­ the low standard of attainment of Coloured pupils is rather disconcerting and does not inspire us with much hope for the future. Of the 79,000 Coloured pupils at school in the Cape Province no less than 42 per cent were in sub-standards. In standards I and below there were no less than 68 per cent. Of the European pupils in the Union 18.16 per cent only were in the sub-standards and 29.5 per cent in standards I and below. Take Standard VI the educational qualification, which is of great importance to us, especially in the Cape Province, for the purpose of the Apprenticeship Act.

European ....................... 10 per cent

Non-European ................... 2.9 per cent

These percentages show that the total number in Standard VI and above is as follows ­

Total number of scholars: European 354,900; Coloured 107,000; Standard VI and above: European 70,000, Coloured 2,150.

A further analysis shows that of the 2,150 Coloured pupils in Standard VI and above 1815 were in the Cape Province, 165 in the Transvaal, 155 in Natal, 15 in the Orange Free State. To the Free State I gave the balance for luck, for I do not know whether schools are inspected in the Model Free State.

 

All these figures reveal a sad if not hopeless state of affairs. Some progress, of course, has been made during the past 10 years. Nevertheless, if it is held that civilisation is a blessing then we should ensure to all those who are compelled to live in this so called civilised country, facilities to acquire the knowledge not only of the society in which they live but also to appreciate the blessings of civilisation. Otherwise civilisation may overwhelm not only this uneducated mob, but also those who stupidly withhold the opportunity to acquire the requisite knowledge for a higher and fuller life.

CLINGING TO OLD IDEAS

I am afraid that the view still held by some Europeans is the cause of the hopeless position of education in the Northern Provinces, and is due largely to their still clinging to ideas which obtained in England 100 years ago, and which was well expressed by the President of the Royal Society, Mr. David Giddy, in 1907, in the House of Commons, when he said: " The giving of education to labouring classes of the poor, would in effect be found to be prejudicial to their morals and happiness; it would teach them to despise their lot in life, and other laborious employment to which their rank in society had destined them, etc. "

Of course, the vast majority of White South Africa hold slightly more liberal views than those of Mr. Giddy's and, fortunately, the Superintendents-General of Education in the respective Provinces are men who, if the necessary financial assistance were granted, would provide a more complete education for all Coloured children.

The report of the Inspector of Native Education in the Free State makes interesting reading, although it refers to Natives, it is not without significance to us. "The progress of the Native, " he says, " has been retarded unduly because there has not been a possibility of greater freedom of interchange of thought between black and white in South Africa. " He asks the question whether the Natives will be given the opportunity to reach in a given period a level of his own which will be proportionately higher than the length of the period taken to reach it. The Inspector calls upon the Orange Free State to face the issue, and his advice deserves a much greater publicity than is possible through an Educational Report. He says, " generally they (the Natives) remain labourers without better prospects of pay than those who have either never taken the trouble or never had the opportunity to obtain a minimum of education. " That remark is equally true with respect to the Coloured children, especially in the rural districts, where education seems of little or no help to the majority of them as a means of earning their livelihood.

" Few people have squarely faced the issue involved, namely, that an educational policy is inextricably bound up with the policy regarding land, wages, industries, commerce and agriculture. To the extent in which the economic policy falls short of the ideal to that extent will education breed discontent and unrest, " he concludes.

No truer words were ever uttered.

Such a policy is only possible in a society divided up into privileged and unprivileged classes, where the former are disposed to grant some form of education to the latter and at the same time determine that the unprivileged class shall be kept in subjection and accept their miserable lot with the passivity of a flock of sheep behind a barbed wire fence. The more one studies history the more astonishing does it seem that in an age of intelligence, reason and culture, there should still be men who will not see the stupidity and the danger of such an inconsistent policy. The inherent danger of refusing to educate the non-European is great and admitted. The inevitable danger in educating him and attempting at the same time to keep him in economic subjection does not appeal to a people who, ostrich-like, bury their heads in the sand. As either of those two courses will end in disaster, it is the duty of white South Africa to ponder well and seriously the problem of the Coloured child's education with all its implications. They should decide whether or not, in order to ensure their own prestige and civilisation, it is better to give the Coloured child a generous education, affording him at the same time every opportunity for self-expression, and self-realisation according to his capacity, encouraging all that goes towards exalting and refining the aesthetic faculties and enabling us all ­ white as well as black­ " to live the life beyond the bridge, and serve that infinite within us as without. "

APO general executive1935. Back row: G Cotton, E Petersen, H E Triegaardt (Vice-Pres), J W Kay, S Wentzel. Front row: W T Mcleod (Vice-Pres), S Reagon (Senior Vice-Pres), Dr A Adburahaman, M P C (President), P J Daniels (Life Vice-Pres), P J Poole (Gen-sec)

WHY EDUCATION SUFFERS

Another question which demands urgent investigation is whether either the State or the child reaps the full benefit of the money spent on education. My own answer to that question is in the negative, and twenty-five years of close study of the problem has convinced me that I am right. It is my considered opinion that until the State takes over the full responsibility of Coloured education, especially in the towns and the more thickly populated rural districts, money will continue to be wasted and Coloured education will languish and suffer.

The spirit of rivalry between Churches is responsible for the large number of small inadequately equipped schools in districts where one large properly staffed public school would produce much better results at less cost to the State.

" It is a pity, " writes the Inspector of Education for the Free State, " that there is a spirit of rivalry between the Churches in a few centres where strong amalgamated schools have been established. " Not only does this spirit of rivalry bar the Coloured child's progress but also it frequently cuts right across the social life of the Coloured community in some districts, making co-operation very difficult.

STATE SCHOOLS THE REMEDY

The Coloured people are not unmindful of the great and noble work done by the Churches, the pioneers of Education in this country. The burdens they have borne in the struggle to implant into our youth ideals enabling them to live happy lives on a higher plane, will never be forgotten. They have done their duty well, and I am glad to note that there are today Churches who are in favour of public State Schools in the place of Mission or Church schools.

The State is squandering public money in encouraging the Churches to build further schools and then pay 5 per cent per annum in rent in perpetuity, without a single brick of the building ever becoming the property of the State.

Lastly, lest I should be misunderstood, let me say that I am still old-fashioned enough to cling to the belief that the spiritual and the intellectual training cannot and should not be separated from each other. I hold that each has its part to play; each contributing its share; each being complementary to the other; both sharing in the preparation for a life on a higher plane of altruistic effort, where it is possible to observe high standards of social conduct in the community.

CIVILISED LABOUR POLICY

Judging from the letters and resolutions received at the A.P.O. Headquarters, the one question which has disturbed the Coloured people most is the Government's Civilised Labour Policy. And rightly so, for the social status of the Coloured people depends very largely, if not primarily upon the meaning and effect of that Policy. I know nothing that has filled the Coloured man with so much contempt for the white man's rule as the Government's Civilised Labour Policy.

The term " Civilised " was designedly coined and used to delude the Coloured people and to deceive the outside civilised world. The A.P.O., however, never had any doubts as to the intent and purpose of the policy, and it did not hesitate to denounce the duplicity and dishonesty of the coiners of the phrase and the cruelty and inhumanity of its operation. The history of the policy, like that of most industrial iniquities, shows that it was born in the North.

After the discovery of gold and the consequent sudden industrial revolution that followed, it was found that the Transvaal Whites were not able to adjust themselves to the changed conditions, with the result that the number of Poor Whites grew year by year to an alarming extent, and employment had to be found for them.

POLICY BORN IN TRANSVAAL

In 1907 the Transvaal Government, therefore, decided to introduce what was known as the White Labour Policy. The Transvaal was quite honest and open about what they meant. They called a spade a spade, and called the policy a white labour policy.

The Government of that Province began by employing 300 poor whites on the railways. By December 1909, the number of poor whites on the Railways in the Province had increased to 2,774. So effective was the White Labour Policy in the Transvaal, that the Cape was permitted to share the blessings at the time of Union. The Railway Administration then decided as a matter of policy to employ Europeans instead of Natives throughout the Union.

The result of the adoption of this policy was that from the date of Union to the 30th April 1924, 5,968 European labourers had been promoted to graded posts. The adoption by Government of the Civilised Labour Policy in 1924 was therefore, not a new departure, but at that date it became a definite policy, applicable to all Government undertakings.

At the end of the first year, the Railways had absorbed 7,136 additional adult European labourers, while in the Engineering branches of the Post Office, European labour increased from 452 on the 31st August 1924, to 1,150 in March1925. The Post-master General was the first to complain that the policy was costing 150 per cent more than the cost of non-European labour.

COLOUREDS TRICKED AND BETRAYED

You will remember that the Government at first used Coloureds to displace Natives at the Cape Town Docks and then in 1929 European men to the number of 150 were in turn used to displace the Coloured men. These men have served the purpose and could now join the ranks of the unemployed.

It is difficult to arrive at any general idea as to the extra cost of Civilised Labour, but it cannot be less than half a million a year.

The meanest and most despicable part played by anyone in this unworthy plot was the action of the Federation of Trades and the White Labour Party towards their comrades with a Coloured skin. The Party began in 1911 to preach the policy of "equal pay for equal work," and passed the following resolution: ­

" That this meeting regards it as essential to the maintenance of a fitting standard of civilisation that wages paid to skilled workers should be irrespective of colour and based upon standard wages paid to skilled white labour. "

Those who were acquainted with the past subterfuges and evasions of that Party, were not deceived by those sweet words.

That resolution at any rate did not seem to have the desired effect of killing the Coloured artisan outright. The battle continued, so in 1912 the Federation of Trades of Johannesburg passed a resolution which reads: ­

" Step by step the White artisan has been driven from the coastal towns, owing to the encroachment of the cheap Coloured labour. Now we are faced with the fact that determined action is essential to retain to the White artisan the work in the Transvaal. "

The falsity of that resolution needs no comment, evidently also failing to raise sufficient racial prejudice against the Coloured worker to finish the job successfully in quick time. So in 1913 they turned their weapons against the White employer. The Federation issued a circular calling upon every worker to " boycott builders, owners, merchants, etc., who employed Coloured labour. "

During that same year it passed a further resolution as follows:­

" To retain to the White artisan in the Transvaal that employment which he by his presence created, and which is his just inheritance by virtue of the sacrifices made by him, " and we are assured " that this decision has been come to not in the interest of one class of the community alone but in the interest of all those of the White races who would make South Africa their home. "

In 1920 the Federation of Trades Congress, assembled in Johannesburg, adopted the following resolution: ­

" That the Congress views with the greatest alarm the serious menace to the economic and social welfare of the inhabitants of the Transvaal by the continued encroachment of the non-European, and is of opinion that immediate measures be taken to deal with such encroachments. "

It will thus be seen that the White worker of the Transvaal has had much to do with the success of the Civilised Labour Policy.

SELECT COMMITTEE'S REPORT

In 1913 Parliament appointed a Select Committee "to enquire into and report upon the question of the extension throughout the Union of the field of employment for Europeans and the circumstances surrounding labour conditions in South Africa." In its report it reminds Europeans that they are " the dominant race in relation to non-Europeans, " and warns them " that the dominant race is being forced out of his old avocations. " Here was a Parliamentary document making a direct appeal to racialism and colour prejudice and containing the grossest untruths.

It also recommended " that the system of European employment upon railways and other public works, should be encouraged and extended. "

The Committee further urged the extension of the apprenticeship system, both in the mines and in all large industrial undertakings. Lastly, apologising for not being able to recommend an immediate change in the spirit of a people by Act of Parliament and Regulations, it hoped that there would be a gradual change in the spirit of the people (White employers), to help forward South Africa, along the lines indicated. It seems as if the Select Committee was secretly in league with the Federation of Trades. It also appealed to the White employers to employ Whites only, while the Federation of Trades declared a boycott against them. These two attacks, by the Federation of Trades and the other by the Select Committee, were launched in the same year.

ONE-SIDED WARFARE

From that date began a heartless, cruel, one-sided industrial war of extermination against a defenseless, law-abiding, industrious Coloured population. The weapons in the hands of the White attackers were the Wage Act, Wage Board, Conciliation Board, Apprenticeship Act, Apprenticeship Board, and Juvenile Affairs Board. The full effect of the operations of these statutory enactments is well known to us all; it constitutes a blot on the White man's Government, as a living example of selfish greed and exploitation.

The Wage Board fixed a wage rate, which it knew would in the end eliminate the Coloured skilled artisan from the trades in the Cape. In the Transvaal, of course, the Labour Unions needed little assistance ­ their propaganda had borne some fruit. They were powerful enough to protect the Transvaal white, quite unconcerned about the future disaster that is bound to overtake the country. It was in the Cape Province, the home of the Coloured man, where the operation of the fixing of a wage rate by law was really needed, and it was in this Province where its effect has been severely felt. The first to be thrown on the streets and denied the means of earning an honest living were the semi-skilled men. The inevitable result of the Wage Board's determination was well known to the Government. Its chairman, Mr. Lucas, declared, " the effect of the Board's decisions in a number of cases would undoubtedly be that Whites would be substituted for Coloured workers. "

PRIME MINISTER'S CIRCULAR

In 1924, as the skilled Coloured worker was well cornered by legislative enactments, a vigorous attack was launched against the unskilled non-European worker. The Prime

Minister, on the 31st October of that year, issued a circular, defining Civilised Labour, as follows: ­

"Civilised labour was to be considered as the labour rendered by persons whose standard of living conformed to the standard generally recognised as tolerable from the usual European standpoint. Uncivilised labour is to be regarded as the labour rendered by persons whose aim is restricted to the bare requirements of the necessities of life as understood among barbarous and undeveloped peoples."

The circular added "the employment by the Government of civilised labour wherever possible in substitution for uncivilised labour has been accepted as a matter of definite policy."

The Coloured man, tricked into believing that the Government regarded him as a civilised person, took the place of the Native, only to discover later on that he himself was to be dispensed with to make room for the poor Whites.

Those who were retained in the service, especially in the railways in the Transvaal, had their wages reduced to such a low scale as to make it impossible for them to live above the uncivilised standard. The maximum wage for non-European labour on the Railways was reduced in 1932 to 4s 6d a day. Those whose wages were above the maximum arid who were dissatisfied with the revised scale were told that they could leave the service. The maximum is 4s 6d a day, but there are many men whose pay is under 2s 6d a day, and from this miserably small pittance 6d. a day was docked in 1931. The advice of the Select Committee of 1913 has been carried out so faithfully that, in a few years, hardly any semi-skilled person will be found in some of the services of the State.

Time will not permit to deal with the Apprenticeship Act, except to say that the Coloured skilled artisan, who is being pushed out of the trade by the Wage Board's decision and the White psychology which that Act created, now finds it impossible to apprentice his son to any trade. But so well are the forces organised against the poor lad that, even if he did possess the educational qualification, he finds his colour is a permanent disqualification, which no degree of intelligence, education and respectability can overcome. The father may well ask: For what purpose have I educated my child? When the State by all kinds of legal enactments and administrative tricks denies him the opportunity to learn a trade, and thrusts him back into the lowest social stratum ­ where he may eke out a miserable existence on uncivilised rates of pay. Alas! He may well exclaim in despair, " And this is White civilisation! "

POLITICAL RIGHTS

Without stopping to analyse the indefensible and untenable form of personal privilege claimed by European South Africa to an exclusive right to political power, I have no doubt that the position of political helotage of non-Europeans today is due solely to the psychology of the Voortrekkers, who left the Cape Colony in 1836, returned to our Province in 1910, and then completely revolutionised its political framework.

I need hardly dwell long upon the principle of "Equal Rights" which formed the corner stone of our Constitution from 1853 to 1910, its implication were well understood by us all. It is well known that it is a principle, founded upon intellectual conviction free from any emotional bias and unconnected with personal interest, selfish aims or desires. In granting that Constitution the Imperial Government in the dispatch by the Duke of Newcastle to Governor Cathcart expressed the hope that it would be the means of reconciling the conflicting elements at the Cape. We may safely admit that if under that Constitution we did not at all times enjoy equal and full citizenship rights in every respect, it certainly succeeded in producing a basis of relationship between the different races which ensured respect for the rulers and laid the foundation for those traditions of which the old Cape Colonists were so proud.

But a great change came over South Africa. A series of events followed each other in quick succession: The discovery of gold, the Anglo-Boer War, the Treaty of Vereeniging, the Act of Union, the Disfranchisement of non-Europeans and the triumph of the principle of " No Equality in Church or State. "

PERSECUTION BEGINS

It is to the Act of Union that we have to attribute all the undeserving miseries that non-Europeans are suffering at present. That Act completely changed the political framework, revolutionised the basis of our social structure, caused a break in our traditions, and has now thrown the whole white population into a mould which might conceivably spell disaster to the country.

Let us be somewhat charitable and not blame the men from the North too much. They could not help themselves; they were reared in an atmosphere of "no equality" and are therefore not wholly responsible for their narrow racialism. Their ideas and ideals, their customs and traditions, are the inevitable result of a political framework which was the very anti-thesis of our Constitution of 1853.

The Constitution of the Voortrekkers was drawn up at Potchefstroom in 1844 and ratified in Derdepoort in 1849. It contained the following Clause: ­

" That no bastard shall sit in our assemblies as a member or Judge up to the tenth generation. "

Later on we find that the Transvaal's Constitution of 1858 declared by Article 9: " That the people will not permit any equalisation of Coloured persons with white inhabitants, neither in Church nor State. "

Cast in such a mould we could hardly expect that the Voortrekker, uneducated and really only semi-civilised, would accept the Constitution of the Cape Province in 1910. Nevertheless, that does not preclude our passing judgment on the Act of Union which is a triumph of ignorance over enlightenment, of racial prejudice over justice, a clear indication that the Coloured people possessed no rights, no matter how sacred, which need be respected. Never can we forget the humiliation we suffered when white South Africa amid great jubilations celebrated Union, the day when we were robbed of our political rights. Yes, the stigma is still there, the soul's smart is still fresh. The brand of inferiority and political helotage, until it is wiped out, will rankle in the minds of every Coloured person as an undeserved stigma, and unworthy of a people who call themselves civilised. That position should not be accepted as a permanent basis of relationship in South Africa.

NO RELIEF

Such then was the feeling of the Coloured people when General Hertzog made his famous declaration in 1924. His pronouncement brought some ray of hope to the embittered soul, who for fourteen anxious years that is from 1910 to 1924, the Coloured man has nursed a sullen feeling of resentment, and today he has already waited for another ten years ­ from 1924 to 1934 ­ for some tangible sign of a return to the pre-Union political status of the Coloured man. During those ten years a white Constitution has been granted to South West Africa, and votes have been granted to white women. Our own womenfolk, despite the wonderful progress made by them since 1910 ­ educationally, despite their having given ample proof of high intellectual endowments, despite all this they in turn have now been branded as inferiors, belonging to a group, even inferior to their own husbands, for the latter have still the right to vote in the Cape Province.

There is also the Adult Suffrage Act, which has rendered the Coloured vote almost valueless.

I have dealt with only a few of the outstanding wrongs, which we suffer as distinct from the rest of the population. Time will not permit me to deal with more. This task must be left to Congress.

The wrongs we suffer, politically, educational, economic, are all founded in racial prejudice, which is the curse of any Society, and should not be tolerated as it breeds enmity and hatred. Such a structure, no matter how propped up, cannot last, and the sooner it crumbles the better for South Africa as a whole. Intellect, character, and all that goes to make a worthy citizen, count for nothing in this country. We are branded as an inferior race, quite regardless of the attainments of some of the members of that group.

South Africa may boast of Sovereign Independence, of a higher status, of having the right to declare war or of remaining neutral, she may strut and pose before the civilised world as a great people, she may do all this and deceive the world, but as long as she continues to treat Coloured people not as individuals but as a racial group singled out for special restrictive legislation, so long is she a semi-civilised and barbarous people.

Perhaps the words of a writer on "International Government" may serve as a bit of advice to South Africa at this critical juncture in her own history. He says: " I see every man and woman as an individual, and all men and women are born equal in so far as they are individuals. History shows that where the State treats the class and not the individual as the basis of social organisation, where class or birth determine the distribution of power and privilege and superior or inferior legal rights, society must be bad and barbarous, for socially the superior class is arrogant, unjust, avaricious, stupid, and tyrannous, while the inferior is servile, poor, depressed, envious and ignorant. In a good society the individual should be treated as a social and political unit and as of equal social and political value. " How true! I wonder whether the writer had even been to South Africa.

POLITICAL RIGHTS INHERITABLE

The existence in South Africa of a privileged class looking upon the possession of political power as their exclusive and their inheritable privilege and an unprivileged class to whom the right to equal happiness is denied, perpetuates injustices in the name of civilisation. Those who foster such a narrow spirit of an exclusive nationality by exalting their alleged racial purity because they belong to some particular group, attributing its achievements to the peculiar virtue of the unique stock whence it sprang are really manufacturing a false science out of a popular prejudice. Anthropology does not attribute any particular virtue to the possession of a white skin. As long as this false science holds sway, and as long as this spirit of racialism survives and flourishes, and so long as political power is in the hands of the privileged class, so long will the Coloured people be kept in abjectness and poverty.

If I now ask you the question whether any appreciable advance has been made towards the realisation of the Prime Minister's famous declaration of 1924,1 know what your answer will be.

APPEAL TO YOUTH

Moreover I fear there is little hope of any improvement until and unless the iniquitous and blasphemous Colour Bar is removed from the Act of Union and until the vigorous prosecution of that cruel Civilised Labour Policy is stopped. If that is not done then our only hope is to appeal to the younger generation of white South Africa.

There is growing up and trained at the Universities, a body of young white students ­ male and female ­ to whom I am afraid we must look as the saviours of their country. They are receiving the necessary scientific training to view the social facts objectively, and to ponder the problem in the interests of the country as a whole. Many of them are displaying rationalism and humanism, lacking in the older generation whose nationalism is founded upon a narrow racialism.

These young South Africans will see the futility of sustaining an unscientific basis for Society, and they will, we hope, lay a foundation for a civilisation, if different from that of the rest of the world, yet in no wise be inferior to any. In this way they could save the country and succeed in winning the affection and respect of the Coloured races.

May I also make an earnest appeal to our own youth, to come along and help to solve one of the most difficult and perplexing problems that confront the world, namely, how to adjust us to the changing world ­ how black and white can live together in peace and amity, each contributing his share to make this country truly great.

To the whites of South Africa I would say:

" Deem our people brutes no longer,

Till some reason you shall find,

Worthier of regard and stronger

Than the colour of our kind.

Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings

Tarnished all your boasted powers,

Prove that you have human feelings

Ere you proudly question ours. "

To my own people I would repeat the advice I gave before, and say that you should do your best to build up the character of your children by making your homes healthy and happy; that you should spare no expense in your endeavours to secure the best education for your offspring, and that you should steadily persevere in seeking to maintain a higher reputation as honest law-abiding citizens, and

" If the will and sovereignty of God

Bid suffer it awhile, and kiss the rod,

Wait for the dawning of a brighter day,

And snap the chain the moment when you may. "