Racial Discord In South Africa Is Not Very Great

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 72, 1 April 1949, Page 7

Racial Discord In South Africa Is Not Very Great

The fact that many people, when speaking of South Africa, thought immediately of racial trouble was commented on by a visiting South African, Major A. D. Cilliers who is at present visiting the Bay of Plenty. He said that that was not the case—racial discord did not exist as much'as people thought. There were in South Africa, he said, just under three million whites and over nine and a half million non-whites, the former comprising English and Afrikanders. Those two peoples got on exceedingly well, continued the speaker, but there were a certain' number, a very small element, that still ’ carried bitter memories of racial hatred.

Dr Malan, who is a Doctor of Divinity, has in his party a small section that thinks South Africa should be a republic, continued the speaker. One member even thinks that he will be the first president, but there are really very few who want a republic. Major Cilliers remarked that a general election in South Africa was almost synonymous with war.

Bantus were still almost completely uncivilised, he said. Over five and a half million were still in their tribal reserves and lived under tribal law, few having ever seen a white man. They had as many wives as they could buy with cattle, and were hardly taxable.