STRICT COLOUR BAR IN SOUTH AFRICA, SAYS CLERGYMAN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 30, 16 March 1948, Page 4

STRICT COLOUR BAR IN SOUTH AFRICA, SAYS CLERGYMAN

"It is a great pleasure to come to New Zealand. I feel I am in a free land. South Africa is not free by any means," said the Rev-. Wilfred A. Shelley, a member of the Community of the Resurrection in Johannesburg, interviewed in Christchurch. Fr. Shelley is conducting parish missions in various parts of the Dominion. "New Zealanders can have no conception of the colour bar," he said.

Fr. Shelley, who has been doing community work with natives in South Africa for the last 10 years, said that a great deal had been done in educating natives in Johannesburg, the northern Transvaal and Rhodesia. .The colour bar made the work almost hopeless. When the natives were educated they were more and more frustrated by the restrictions.

Natives were not allowed in cinemas or restaurants, and were not allowed in the same trams, buses or railways as Europeans. They were forced to carry a pass with them and were not allowed out after 9 o'clock at night. They had a communal franchise, but were represented in Parliament by Europeans. The restrictions, which applied to all coloured races, were rigidly enforced. They were due no doubt to a fear that the "whites" would be overcome by natives. There were 2,000,000 Europeans in South Africa and 8,000,000 members of native races.'

In the Johannesburg district there were 350,000 natives working in mines and 250,000 in other industries. They lived in large camps known as locations, and the community of which he was a member was in charge of the work done for the Church of England in the areas. -They had -four churches and six schools and had nearly 100,000 natives under their control. The natves were - very keen to be educated and there was a school up to matriculation standard for them, but the colour bar worked against them. Europeans had free education up to the university, but free education for natives applied only to primary schools, and there were a very limited number of primary schools. The natives had a university and some went to the Johannesburg University for medical training, but it was not at all easy for them.

"My own work has been principally as a liaison officer between the two races, and there has been a heartening response from the younger generation of . Europeans, which shows that the position is not entirely hopeless," Fr. .Shelley added. "There is also a joint council of natives and Europeans which meets together and discusses these problems. The Churches are doing some excellent work and the education authorities are also helping."