ANTIPATHY TO WHITES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 106, 17 February 1950, Page 3

ANTIPATHY TO WHITES

COLOURED OFFICIALS ON AIR ROUTE EXPERIENCE IN FLIGHT TO AUSTRALIA (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) SYDNEY, Feb. 16. Two New Zealanders and a South African who reached Sydney to-clay after a 13,000-mile flight from Britain in a Percival Proctor monoplane, said they were, harassed by hostile coloured-Gov-ernment officials along the Empire route from Egypt to Darwin.

The men: are Philip Lightband, aged 24, Peter Hobart, aged 22, both of New Plymouth, and Donald Mcßean, aged 21, of South Africa. Lightband and Hobart are on their way home, and Mcßean, a commercial artist, is working his way round the world. The New Zealanders plan to sell their plane in Sydney and return home by ship. Lightband said that the crew met anti-white trouble in Egypt, when officials made them fill in 32 Customs and baggage declarations. “From then on until we reached Darwin we were marked men because we were white," he said. “At Rangoon, War Department officials refused to let us continue on our way because we were three days overdue, and Government officials claimed, that because of this delay our landing permit was invalid. They threatened to shoot us down if we took off, without permission. They argued for days before letting us continue.”

South African Unpopular Mcßean said he was harrassed in Pakistan because lie was a South African. “As soon as the airport officials learned that I was a South African they demanded that I pay £2,” he said. “They refused to say what the tax was for or give, mfe a receipt, although I did insist successfully that they record the. fine in my passport.” In Jakarta, the officials were not anti-British, but the feeling gained was that there was a general anti-white policy being vigorously pursued by the Indonesians.