PRESIDENT OF S.A.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 13 May 1961, Page 9

PRESIDENT OF S.A.

Kindness To African Boy

“It could have been mentioned that a few months back, when a young native boy swallowed poison near his farm. Mr Swart, then the Governor-General, arranged for his own official car to rush the boy to hospital,” said Mr F. W. Waring, a member of the South African trade mission, yesterday, when he criticised a cabled report in “The Press” yesterday morning about Mr C. R. Swart, the Governor-General, who will become the first president of the Republic of South Afrcia at the end of this month.

That act of kindness had been given great prominence in South African papers, but he did not suppose it had been sent overseas, Mr Waring said. Both he and Mr I. G. Flem. ing, leader of the mission, in separate conversations with a reporter of “The Press” said the report had contained several derogatory references to Mr Swart. To describe him as a former Hollywood film extra was far from complimentary. Mr Fleming said) As a young man, Mr Swart had worked his way around the world, and it was perhaps only natural that a man of 6ft SJin should take part as an extra in a film when he was in Hollywood. References to his producing a cat o’ nine tails in the House of Assemblies and to his remark that he found a photograph of a wedding of a white girl and an African “disgusting” were similarly derogatory they said. In expressing the last remark, Mr Swart had been echoing the views of millions of South Africans, black as well as white. Mr Waring said the English-language newspapers in South Africa were opposed to the Government, and it was those newspapers which supplied the news which went pverseas. He did not think any of the news for overseas came from Afri. kaans newspapers, which supported the Government.