Kennedy Warns On S. African Policy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 18

Kennedy Warns On S. African Policy

(NJ. Press Association-Copyright) DURBAN, June 8. Senator Robert Kennedy told about 20,000 people in Durban last night that unless the situation in South Africa changed “there are going to be major crises,” A.A.P.-Reuter reported.

He was answering questions in the main hall of the University of Natal after making a brief speech in which he congratulated all those young people in South Africa who were “willing to challenge and to speak out.”

Senator Kennedy arrived from Stellenbosch where he said he was shocked and saddened by the ambush shooting of James Meredith in Mississippi.

A crowd of 1500 students at the airport greeted him with cheers and singing in unison “we love you. Bobby.” The Durban students overran police barricades and happily mobbed Senator Ken-

nedy and his wife, EtheL A group of students lifted Senator Kennedy on to their shoulders and the Senator made an impromptu speech urging the students to use their education “to help those of your fellow citizens who suffer from discrimination because of race.”

His remarks were greeted with wild cheering by whites, Africans and Indians in the crowd, United Press International said. Peace Threat?

At the University of Natal a questioner asked Senator Kennedy whether he regarded South Africa as a threat to international peace. The Senator replied he did not think that would be the right term to use, but “unless the situation changes there are going to be major crises.” He said he thought what

was heeded was for the South African Government to “move towards recognising coloured Africans and other non-whites as first-class citizens.”

About 2500 students packed the hall, with another estimated 18,000 listening to loudspeaker relays of the meeting in adjoining halls and thronged outside the main hall.

The Senator was vigorously applauded at the end of his speech, but, after the question-and-answer session produced groups of vigorous dissenters in the hall. In his speech, Senator Kennedy said it was up to young people to “put an end to injustice in South Africa and other parts of the world.” It was the task of young people to speak out, to be dissatisfied and to say: “We can do better.” He added: “Are you going to fight the bull or stand in the sidelines?” Not Harsh

Observers said that although Senator Kennedy again avoided harsh criticism of the South African Government, he came nearer than ever before when he said tonight that when he was American At-torney-General, he did not “put people in gaol and under house arrest” to combat communism.

One questioner asked Senator Kennedy why the United States had given aid to “totalitarian governments” in Africa, as in Ghana and the Congo, while joining in sanctions against Rhodesia. He replied, amid some heckling, that United States aid to the Volta dam project in Ghana under the regime of former President Nkrumah was “not to help the individual buit to help the people improve their lot.” On Rhodesia, Senator Kennedy asked whether the Rhodesia Constitution was voted for by all the people of Rhodesia, and said: “Has the white man, just because he is white, got the right to decide for himself that he is fit to govern a country?”