Say It out Loud - The 1929 Presidential Address, Cape Town, 1st April, 1929

From the book: Say It out Loud by Mohamed Adhikari

The 1929 Presidential Address, Cape Town, 1st April, 1929 ¹

There are times when leaders of people, especially political leaders, should endeavour to divest themselves of that party-political prejudice which warps the intellect, and when they should try to view in their true perspective the great problems that await solution. If these men would look round they would see that great changes are taking place which will profoundly affect our future, and they will probably agree that the time has arrived when stock should be taken of the great social facts. If they did this they would be able to determine where the people stand, and whether they have made any progress during any specified period in any specified spheres of life.

The special period to which I should like to draw your attention tonight is the past five years during which the present Government has been in power, and the special spheres of life to which we should confine our enquiry are the economic, the educational and political. When making that enquiry, we should bear in mind that it is not by a magician's wand that a people can be transformed into angels or suddenly lifted, even in this country, to a higher level. There must be steady progress in the economic, educational, political and spiritual life of a people before they can expect their transformation into men capable of living a full altruistic life, worthy of receiving full citizenship rights, sharing the responsibilities and enjoying common privileges. If this is so, then let us see what progress we have made during the past five years in those special spheres of life towards that higher life.

You will recollect that in 1924 General Hertzog announced that the Coloured man was entitled to a higher status and that politically; industrially and educationally he should be placed on equality with Europeans. This declaration of policy was received with great joy and brought much comfort. Some optimists expected a sudden uplift, a sudden transformation. Others entertained fascinating hopes of steady progress, and indulged in dreams of the Coloured man for the first time in the history of South Africa being recognised as part of the Nation, with full opportunities to realise the best potentialities in his nature and enjoying a fair share of the material benefits.

COLOURED PERSONS' RIGHTS BILL

The time at my disposal does not permit my reviewing fully the political position of the Coloured people in the Union. I shall, therefore, confine my remarks to the Coloured Persons' Rights Bill; the measure that the Prime Minister said "lays down for the first time unequivocally the principle of political equality between Europeans and Coloureds." This Bill was first published in July 1926. It had a very hostile reception, for it provided first for the disfranchisement of the Native in the Cape Province, and only then granted to the Coloured people in the three Northern Provinces the right to elect one European to represent them in Parliament. It is needless to remind you that we protested against it, because we declared that in no circumstance would the A.P.O agree to any measure that robbed the Native of his vote.

That was the line of criticism adopted by the Coloured people throughout the whole Union, and the Bill was universally condemned as a sham and as a travesty of political rights. The strongest denunciation came from quite an unexpected source, namely, the African National Bond, an Organisation that was created for the purpose of supporting the Prime Minister and his party. The Transvaal Executive of that Organisation in August 1926, passed this resolution "That this meeting of Coloured people thank General Hertzog for having laid down the principle of extending the Coloured franchise to the Northern Provinces, but is disappointed with the conditions as laid down in the Bill, as they are not in accordance with General Hertzog's declaration of equal political status for Coloureds and whites and his promises to the deputation of the Bond. One European to represent the Coloureds of the three Provinces in the House of Assembly, would be worse than a voice in the wilderness. We do not know whether any conscientious white man would consent to represent the three Provinces. "

The Executive of the African National Bond then sent out an urgent appeal to their " brothers in the Cape Province to adopt such means as are possible constitutionally to prevent the Bill becoming law in its present form. "

The second Bill was published in 1927, but differed little from that of 1926. A strong deputation from the A. P.O. Congress then waited upon the Prime Minister and presented the following resolutions: -

• " That the Coloured Persons' Rights Bill is unacceptable in its present form; (b) that the present franchise rights for Coloured people in the Cape Province be not altered except for the purpose of restoring those rights which they lost in 1910; (c) that the time has arrived when those lost rights should be restored to Coloured people in the Cape; and (d) that the same political rights as obtained in the Cape-Province should be granted to the Coloured people in the Northern Provinces."
• The Prime Minister assured the deputation that he did not propose to proceed with that Bill; that he intended to alter it materially; and that he would then submit the new proposals to the Coloured community to see whether they could be made acceptable to the whole of the country. The deputation made it clear to the Prime Minister that however anxious the Coloured people were for the extension of political rights to the Northern Colonies, no Bill, no matter how high the political status it conferred on them, would be acceptable if the Coloured people had to be a party to depriving the Native of his vote.

That I think was a laudable stand to take up, for the Native as a taxpayer and a citizen of South Africa has an equal claim with other citizens to political rights. To be a party to robbing him of those rights would be a dastardly outrage, and the A.P.O. took up an uncompromising attitude on that vital point.

Whether as a result of our representations or not, the Prime Minister, however, has now left out of the 1929 Bill the clauses dealing with the disenfranchisement of the Natives. The present Bill, then, is one dealing solely with Coloured people.

Those who wonder why the Prime Minister has not kept his promise to call a conference of Coloured people should read the Bill carefully and compare it with the two previous ones. They will soon find that he had good and sufficient reason for not consulting us.

This Bill is infinitely worse than the two previous ones and it would never have been acceptable to any conference truly representative of the Coloured people.

The Bill contains not only all the obnoxious and humiliating clauses of the other two, but the alterations actually place further difficulties in the way of the people in the three Provinces getting the vote. For instance, every Coloured person who desires to have the vote shall appear for inspection before a Board consisting of a magistrate and two other persons, and if the Board thinks that the applicant is not a Coloured person then there is no appeal from that finding and for the purposes of the Bill the person is a Native. Again, like the previous Bills, this latest edition gives the Coloured people of the three Northern Provinces only one European representative.

CHANGES IN THE BILL

Under the old Bill every Coloured person in the Union outside the Cape Province who has been declared by the Board to be a Coloured person, who associates with Coloureds or Europeans, and lives like a European, and who can read the registration form and write his name, address, age and occupation, shall be entitled to be registered, and thereafter he may vote for one member. The new Bill says that the applicant must read proficiently and write legibly.

The old Bills make provision showing how after seven years the Coloured voters in the three Northern Provinces may be placed on the ordinary voters' roll with Europeans. In the new Bill they must wait for ten years instead of seven before they will be placed on the ordinary roll.

In the old Bills a person to be entitled to be enrolled on the ordinary voters' roll must be able to read the form and write his name, address, etc. The new Bill lies it down that he must have attained a standard of education equal to, or higher than the Fourth Standard of any public department of education in the Union, before he will be placed on ordinary voters' rolls. You will thus see that the 1929 Bill has made it more difficult for Coloureds in the Northern Provinces to be placed on the Coloured roll to enable them to vote for the one European representative, and almost impossible for the majority of them ever to be placed on the ordinary voters' roll. Small wonder, therefore, that the Prime Minister thought it wise not to call a conference of Coloured people! I am sure no Coloured organisation would have approved it before he took it to Parliament.

CAPE PROVINCE VOTERS

As far as the Cape Province is concerned, every person who after a fixed date desires to be registered shall apply in writing on the prescribed form to a registering officer, who shall forthwith transmit the application to a magistrate, who in turn must forward it to the Board. The applicant shall on a date and at a place determined by the Board appear in person. If it appears to the Board, after enquiry, that the applicant is a Coloured person, then the Chairman shall endorse a certificate to that effect and send it on to the Minister.

The definition of a Coloured person is interesting, but will lead to many disappointments as well as a reduction in the number of Coloured voters in the Cape Province. A " Coloured person " means a person resident in the Union who is not a European, or a Native, or an Asiatic, or a member of an aboriginal race or tribe of a country outside Africa, but includes Cape Malays, St. Helenians and Mauritians, and a person born before the commencement of the Act whose father or mother is or was a Native and whose other parent is or was a European or Coloured person. Any one who looks too much like a Hottentot, Bushman, Griqua or Koranna will be regarded as a Coloured person, provided he lives like a Coloured person or a European, associates with Coloured persons or Europeans and has a "standard of life in conformity with European civilisation. "

How the poor Coloured people in the country district can possibly live up to European standards on one pound a month is a problem which should be put to the Prime Minister. This I do know, that in many districts our people are still called Hottentots. Indeed, some appear as such on the voters' roll, and the intention evidently is to strike these off the voters' roll, as is apparent from a speech by Mr. Tielman Roos, Speaking at Mulder's Drift in 1925, he said, " The franchise as at present must in the interests of the white man be taken away from the Coloured man. One thing is certain, we will not allow the Native or Coloured man to add a jot more to the influence or rights that he now possesses. "

I hope to have a further opportunity of going more fully into the Coloured Persons' Rights Bill; for tonight it is sufficient to say that in many important aspects the Bill is worse than the two previous ones, and as far as the people in the three Northern Provinces are concerned, it is valueless, whilst in the Cape Province it tampers with the political rights as they prevail today.

The only crumb of comfort it contains is for those who like to run away from their parents and " play white. " The Bill says that every person who is by general acceptance and repute a European and descendants of reputed Europeans shall not be deemed to be a Coloured person unless he so desires, but shall be deemed to be a European.

These people will probably accept the Bill. Self-respecting Coloured people who are not ashamed of their colour, I do know, will reject the Bill as a gratuitous insult and a fraud.

THE ECONOMIC STATUS

Let us now look at the economic status of the Coloured man, to see whether he has during the past five years moved towards a higher social level, or whether he has slid back into a lower plane.

It is hardly necessary to emphasise the effect of economic environment on the social position of individuals. It is generally admitted that the manner in which a person earns his living and the amount of the wages he earns, have a greater influence on his character than has religion. A man's mind is so occupied with his economic position for the greater and the best part of his waking hours when his brain is most active, that he thinks of religion, if he thinks at all, only on Sunday, the day of rest, or at night when he is tired. At any rate religion seems to have less influence in modern civilization on man's attitude towards his fellow men; on his thoughts of the relations between the owner and the producer, the employer and the employed.

It is the economic position of a person which ensures to him ease and pleasure, or reduces him to grinding poverty; which enables him to live a cultured life or deadens his higher faculties and blasts his religious spirit. It is to the economic environment, therefore, that we must turn to find out what progress the Coloured man has made towards the higher economic status promised by the Prime Minister, and whether there are hopes of his attaining " a standard of life which conforms to that of European civilization," as General Hertzog insists on in his Coloured Persons' Rights Bill.

Speaking to a Coloured audience at Stellenbosch (May, 1924), General Hertzog said, " The duty of the European is to see that all sections are encouraged and helped to attain a high standard of civilization and through their moral and intellectual power to make this country strong and prosperous. "

Let us see whether this complex economic structure which has been deliberately created by the Government during the past five years, has helped us to reach a standard of civilisation under which we could realise our potentialities and put forth our best efforts to make the country prosperous, and so ensure happiness and contentment to its inhabitants.

Well, no one will deny that the Coloured man has a wonderful aptitude for learning trades, and that he has given ample proof of his ability to perform any skilled work that the European has allowed him to learn. The marvel is that he has achieved such great progress in the past with so very little school education and with hardly any training. In certain trades he has proved himself the equal of the average overseas-trained skilled worker, and I am sure that if he were given a chance he would become as reliable and efficient as any other person. It is just this aptitude, this virtue of the Coloured man that has been the cause of much of the restrictive legislation.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

Are we having a fair chance in this great industrial development of which we hear so much, and which the Minister of Finance claims as such a wonderful achievement of the Government? He pointed out that factories have sprung up like mushrooms; that large numbers of people have found employment and that unemployment has almost vanished. But, may we ask, have we as a people participated in this industrial prosperity, are we getting a square deal and have we risen economically? Well, I say emphatically, No. There is ample proof that the industrial development has gradually eliminated non-Europeans from jobs when white men were available, and that this is the deliberate policy of the present Government. Mr. Havenga, in his Budget Speech said that with regard to industrial development there has been a further gratifying increase in employment of Europeans in secondary industries and in factories that were in existence in July 1925. " Secondary industries. " he says " are expected to provide work for non-Europeans as well as for Europeans, but more especially for the latter .... In 1928 there was a further increase of European labour, and the clothing and sweet-making industries show the large increases in European employment since 1925 of 68% and 53% respectively. "

This great industrial development of which Mr. Havenga boasts, is the realization of Col. Creswell's aim of opening up avenues of employment for Europeans, and the squeezing out of Coloured men.

A policy of sane protection to foster and encourage industries is approved by all of us, but a policy of protection for which all have to pay, but which gives no protection to the consumer, and which gives employment to one section and pushes the other out on to the streets, is selfish and brutal. This is what the policy of protection has done for the Coloured man. It has increased the cost of living. It has thrown hundreds out of employment, and it has not raised the unskilled workers' wages.

WAGE ACT

This repressive piece of legislation has dealt the severest blow of all to the Coloured worker ­ man and woman ­ especially to the aged and semi-skilled. It was deliberately designed to hit the Coloured man in the industries who has not the ability or has not had the opportunity to acquire that amount of skill, which entitles him to a full wage. And going about the streets of the Cape Peninsula will see how well it has succeeded. Here hundreds of semi-skilled men and women are now swelling the ranks of the unemployed without any hope of employment. A Wage Act, which aims at securing for workers a civilized standard of living, is desirable, but this Wage Act of 1925 which was primarily designed not only to open up avenues of employment for Europeans, but also to clear the Coloureds out of secondary industries, was conceived in selfishness, which has always been the motive of the Labour Party.

Speaking at the Labour Conference at Pretoria, in January 1924, Col. Creswell laid stress on the fact that Asiatics were employed in increasing numbers in factories and workshops in Natal. In the Cape Province a similar process was at work, he said; the Coloured man was ousting the European worker. That process, he concluded, degraded the European people who were the bulwark of civilization.

Apparently, however, he seems to have felt that this great bulwark of civilization needed a strong artificial prop to keep it from tottering, so he put on the Statute Book this iniquitous piece of legislation called the Wage Act.

But there is no machinery for raising the wages of the farm labourer; or the mineworker; the men in these two basic industries are to remain on uncivilized rates of pay. The white man does not want farm work; and the mines would shut down at once if white were substituted for black labour.

White South Africa may boast of its white civilisation and flout it in our faces at every street corner; it may send Commissioners to America and Europe to pose and strut as the representatives of a nation that has suddenly acquired a higher status and that now enjoys sovereign independence; South Africa may do all this, but it should never forget that its whole economic structure rests on cheap non-European labour in its basic industries.

CIVILISED LABOUR POLICY

If the skilled Coloured worker has been hard hit by the Wage Act, then the unskilled worker has been even more cruelly crushed by the Government's Civilised labour Policy.

This disgraceful and discreditable policy of displacing non-Europeans and employing whites, has no parallel in the history of any civilised people and deserves the strongest condemnation of every honest person. There is nothing viler and meaner than to turn a man out of his job in which he has been employed for years, in order to make room for someone else. And this is what the Government has done. What the poor native thinks of this brutal policy it is difficult to say. Probably his feelings towards the white man would be very much like those of Mr. Madeley towards Mr. Sampson, except that the Native has not the choice vocabulary of the soapbox orators and, therefore, we have not yet heard what he thinks.

The Government, being the largest employer of labour, began by putting into operation this policy on the Railways and Harbours. The Railways are now exclusively reserved for whites in spite of the declaration by General Hertzog at Upington at a meeting of Coloured people during the last general election, that " the Constitution stipulates that preference should be given to white and Coloured on the railways and in other services. "

In the Docks when the Natives were sent home, Coloured men were given casual work at 4s6d a day without any privileges. But white men in turn are now gradually eliminating them. There are already in the Cape Town Docks several gangs of white men at 6s- a day doing work that has been done by Coloured men during the past three years at 4s 6d a day. The reason for this last change from Coloured to white, we are told, is that the Coloured man has not given complete satisfaction. This is only half true, but it is quite sufficient for the Government, which is bent on making the change. The fact is that the Coloured man has never received a square deal at the Docks. He has been kept as a casual labourer at 4s6d a day without any hope of advancement. Mr. Malan told not only the A.P.O. but the African National Bond as well, that he could not increase the wages and that he had never promised to give the Coloured man more than 4s6d a day. Needless to say, the Coloureds, therefore, never looked to the Docks for permanent employment, and they eagerly accepted any kind of permanent work in the town whenever it offered. Had Mr. Malan given Coloured men the same wage as he is now paying to white gangs, he would have had a good steady type of labourer, and he would have had to find some other excuse for bringing the white gangs to the Cape Town Docks? The A.P.O. never hesitated to condemn the civilized labour Policy, but some men were tricked and fooled into believing that after the Natives had been sent back to the kraals, the work in the Docks and on the Railways would be given to them. Today they see what the Civilized Labour Policy means. The Native has been sent back to the kraals, and now the process of displacing the Coloured men with white labour has begun. But it has not stopped at the Railways and Harbours. Provincial Councils have issued circulars to hospitals to get rid of non-European cooks and maids and employ white females. The Labour Department has a huge organisation at its disposal. Highly-paid men are touring the country urging Municipalities and Divisional Councils to substitute white for Coloured labour and promising a substantial subsidy towards the additional cost.

The inhumanity of this damnable, one-sided racial fight is that the non-European who is kicked out of his job must look for work elsewhere and help to pay the increased cost of employing white labour.

If the Government had created avenues of employment for all, irrespective of race or colour, if white unemployed were taken into the services of the State without displacing non-Europeans, then no one could have raised any objection. But this Civilised Labour Policy is a purely racial fight, conceived in selfishness and carried out with callous indifference as to the sufferings it might cause to non-Europeans.

The Coloured men who believed in the honesty of the policy, and who hailed it with enthusiasm five years ago, have been woefully betrayed. If they make a thorough enquiry they will find that not only Natives, but Coloured men as well, have actually been thrown out of work on written instructions of the Government, because they were doing work that could be done by white men: that civilized Coloured men are still receiving uncivilized pay; that the era of progressive improvement in the economic status of the Coloured men in the Government's service which was predicted, is as far distant as the moon; and that the Coloured men are kept at only the most menial, the hardest or what is otherwise merely casual work, and all at the smallest possible rate of pay.

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK

We looked anxiously to one other economic factor to raise our status, namely, the principle of equal pay for equal work. This, I need hardly remind you, is a cardinal principle in the religion of the Labour Party and has been preached from every available platform for the past 20 years. The Party denounced employers of labour for employing skilled Coloured and Native artisans, because they were said to be depending on cheap labour. In Johannesburg shopkeepers were blacklisted and employers boycotted because they relied on this so-called cheap labour.

While on an organising tour in the Union in 1920, Mr. Boy dell declared that the policy of paying black men a lower wage than that of the white worker would end in the " black man walking over the debris of the white community. " He went on to say that " industries must be based upon standards conforming to European standards of civilization. There is only one policy, which was that all those who did the same work should receive the same pay. Any other policy would mean that the black would drag the white man right down. "

Again, in 1922, Mr. Sampson at the Trade Union Congress in Cape Town said, " There never was a white man who objected to a native getting the same wage for the same work. " Coloured people, therefore, when they learnt that Labour had entered into a pact with the Nationalists, had high hopes of the unskilled worker's wages being raised, and of his being at last able to live a life " conformable to the European standards. " Mr. Boydell has been Minister of Labour for four years, drawing £2,000 a year. During that period he has never made the slightest attempt to raise the black or Coloured unskilled workers' wages.

As they do in the case of all other sacred principles of theirs, except that of creating jobs for pals and then scabbing on them afterwards, as was done in Mr. Madeley's case, Labour Ministers have carefully avoided making any attempt to put into practice this principle of paying a man not according to the colour of his skin, but according to his work. Worse still, there is at least one instance on record where Mr. Boydell's department insisted on a lower rate of pay than obtained in similar circumstances.

In June last year negotiations were opened by the Municipality of Cape Town with the Labour Department for a subsidy towards the construction of a certain road. The rate of pay decided on by the Council was 6s6d a day. The Department of which Mr. Boydell is the head, replied that a subsidy would be granted provided the Council reduced the pay to 6s a day.

I am sure that if it were thought that the Council would employ only white labour, the rate of pay would not have been reduced.

Look where you like in any or every Government Department, and you will find no instance on record where the principle of equal pay for equal work obtains. The excuse now given is that the Coloured man's standard of living is lower than that of the European. That is what the Minister of Railways said. Of course it is wholly untrue, for a man's standard of living does not depend upon his skin, but solely upon his income. One would like to know how the Minister of Railways could maintain a European standard on 2s6d a day.

APPRENTICESHIP COMMITTEES

The methods of these Committees have been fully exposed by me in previous addresses. Instead of finding openings for the youth of this country, the Committees began by fixing an educational standard, which they knew the Coloured youth had no facilities for attaining. There are not more than 1,000 pupils in standard VI and above, that is, about 1.5 p.c. of those at school. The rest have no hope whatever of learning a trade and will thus is kept at pick-and-shovel work.

A white steel fence has been drawn around the skilled trades. The Apprenticeship Committees have made it high enough to prevent the Coloured lad from climbing over, and the white Labour Party will see that he does not burrow under it.

For the past five years we have done our duty in calling attention to the inequity of fixing an educational qualification which 98 p.c. of the Coloured youths have no chance of attaining. What a terrible prospect. Evidently it is difficult for the people to visualise the future of their children, otherwise they would show their resentment more aggressively and actively than they have hitherto done.

EDUCATION

In the realm of education little or no progress has been made during the past five years. Our clamours seem to have fallen on deaf ears for the vast majority of Coloured and Native children are still growing up without education and without any hope of ever seeing the inside of a school. Nearly 1,000,000 non-European children are growing up in ignorance. In the Cape there are over 50,000 Coloured children in this sorry plight, with a future as gloomy as it can possibly be.

In 1925 a Commission on Coloured Education was appointed in the Cape Province. The report shows once more the determination of the Mission Churches to maintain control over the Coloured schools. These Churches have done valuable work in the past, for which we must all be thankful. But today there is no valid reason why the State should not take over Coloured education, as it has done in the case of the European. As long as the Churches have this powerful hold on education, so long will the Coloured child suffer. If the education in this Peninsula were left entirely to Churches, I make bold to say there would not be to-day a Trafalgar High School, or a Livingstone Secondary School. Both of these were brought into being without any assistance from the Churches, and both, I am glad to say, are the work of the A.P.O.

Last year I gave you full statistics relating to non-European education. There is no need to repeat them for no organised attempt has been made by the Government or the Provincial

Council to improve the position and reduce illiteracy among the growing non-European population.

A comparison of the efforts made in South Africa with what has been done by America for the Negro should make every white man hang his head in shame and contrition. For instance, in the State of Virginia in 1860 there were 490,000 slaves and only 58,000 free Negroes. In 1920 the number of Negroes over 10 years of age was 520,000, and of these only 23% were illiterate. In Missouri there were 114,000 slaves and 3,000 free Negroes. In 1920 the number of Negroes over 10 years of age was 150,000 and of these only 12 per cent were illiterate. Georgia had 460,000 slaves and 3,500 free. The population in 1920 of persons over 10 years was 896,000 and illiterates over 10 years formed only 29 per cent. Pennsylvania had no slaves. In 1920 the population over 10 years was 240,000, and illiterates formed but 6.1 per cent. New York had also no slaves in 1860 but 50 000 free blacks. In 1920 the population over 10 years of age was 171,000 of whom actually only 2.5 per cent were illiterate!

In 1920 there were in the United States 5,000,000 persons over 10 years of age who were illiterate. Of this number 3,089,000 or 6.36 per cent were whites, whilst 1,800,000 or only 37.3 per cent were Negroes.

If we compare these statistics with what obtains even in the Cape Province, especially when we bear in mind that 50 per cent of the children of school-going age are receiving no education, then I repeat South Africa has much to be ashamed of. There is money for prisons and reformatories, for police and magistrates and even for hangmen, but alas! none for schools for non-European children.

The position of the Coloured boy is deplorable. There are approximately 130,000 Coloured children of school age in the Union and out of that total 70,000 cannot gain admission to a school because there is no money for buildings.

In the whole Union there were only 1,200 Coloured children in Standard VI and above. If half of these are girls, then there are only 600 Coloured boys in the whole Union who have any hope of ever being apprenticed to a trade that is if they are fortunate enough to find openings ­ and so eventually of being able to live a life " conformable to European standards! " What a prospect of reaching a higher status!

NATIVE POLICY

The Native is being driven from pillar to post, and the trend of legislation is to reduce him to a position of serfdom such as exists nowhere else in the world. The treatment of the Native is cruel and harsh, devoid of Christian principles, and lacking in those essential ethical principles, which convince a people that they are being governed justly and that they do not belong to an unprivileged section.

The Colour Bar Act, the work of the white Labour Party, is enough to stamp those who were responsible for it as cruel oppressors. Selfishness was the underlying motive for its introduction; it deprives the Native of the right to develop his skill. " Skill, " says Dr. Jack of Manchester College, Oxford, "was the birthright of the human body. The deprivation of the opportunity to develop skill was one of the outstanding wrongs from which man suffered, and skill stood far above the rights to happiness." Skill one might say was a preliminary essential to happiness and to high spiritual morality. The purpose of the body was to exercise some sort of skill, and to deny to a body the facilities to exercise one of the main purposes for which God created it, is a cruel wrong.

In the skilled trades and trade unions there is discernible a tendency towards a fellowship which in the end will produce a spirit of brotherhood. It brings about fellow feeling, a spirit of common interests, a co-operation which must develop into mutual respect, mutual understanding. This prevented by the Colour Bar Act.

It is for this reason that the Colour Bar Act and every such form of repressive legislation should be regarded as iniquitous and immoral. In time to come South Africa will regret such insensate legislation. It will startle and shudder to think that it ever permitted a handful of exploiters styling they the Labour Party to impose its selfish and brutalising policies on a man like General Hertzog.

NATIVE FRANCHISE

When parliamentary institutions were introduced into the Cape, the franchise was granted with the object of reconciling the conflicting elements and of uniting all without distinction of class or colour by one bond of loyalty and a common interest. From that time till today no distinction has been made between the non-Europeans in parliamentary rights in the Cape. In 1900, and again in 1906, Natives and Coloureds stood together. There was no one then who did not approve the co-operation of Natives and Coloureds whenever their political rights were endangered. It is therefore, opportune to utter a grave note of warning to Coloureds ­ especially those few foolish reputed whites of General Hertzog ­ against approving in any way the policy of depriving the Native of his political rights. It will engender against us in the minds of the Natives a spirit of hostility that will be disastrous.

To my mind the attempt to disfranchise Natives, will be a dastardly outrage on his rights ­ rights which they have never abused, but which they have ever exercised in a manner, which should be an example to many Europeans. Some of the most brilliant men who ever graced the Old Cape House of Assembly represented Native constituencies. It will be a calamity to South Africa to deprive the Native of his political rights without any justification.

The gulf is daily widening ­ and such a further act of injustice will be accepted as a brutal challenge, which will lead to disaster.

It is impossible to deal with any of the other aspects of our social life which are also affected by the repressive legislation that has been put in force against us during the past five years, such, for instance, as the Roos Liquor Act, which has also thrown numbers of Coloured men in the Transvaal out of work. Suffice it to say, I am now able to answer the question I put to myself and to you at the opening of my address, and declare that the Coloured man has made no progress during the past five years to reach a higher status and to live a life conforming to European standards of civilization, as required by the Prime Minister in his Coloured Persons' Rights Bill. I do not say that there has been no individual who has risen far above the ordinary Coloured men. What I contend is that the people as a whole have rather been thrust back than helped along, and if we judge our people, as we should do, not by the few brilliant exceptions, nor by the standard of the lowest, but by the average attainments of the whole, then I say without hesitation that we have not only made no progress, but that the outlook is blacker than it has ever been before.

Joint meeting of ANC and APO in Bloemfontein 1931. At the the centre of the platform is Dr A Abdurahman, a leader of the APO and a force for national unity

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me make one point clear. I would be the last person in the world to accuse the Prime Minister of insincerity. I believe that he is honest in his endeavours, and that in his heart he means well towards the people. But unfortunately, he has been reared in an atmosphere of prejudice and racialism, and, cultured man as he is, he lacks the true scientific spirit to tackle the new problems which the new age and the industrial transformation of South Africa have produced. He has more than once expressed a fear of the Natives, both because of their numbers and of their advance in civilization. A mind thus unbalanced renders the possessor; no matter what lofty ideals he may have in his calm moments, quite incapable of dealing with the great problems that await solution.