Apartheid A “Benevolent” Policy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31117, 21 July 1966, Page 16

Apartheid A “Benevolent” Policy

It was a recognition of the outstanding differences between Africans and Europeans—almost coincidentally distinguished by colour which formed the basic thinking of the muchcriticised but benevolent policy of separate development apartheid in South Africa, the ConsulGeneral for South Africa in New Zealand (Mr A. J. Oxley) said in an address to the Royal Overseas League last evening. South Africa’s policy was a practical recognition of the fact that in the one country were different people of different standards of development and civilisation, with different ways of life and different customs and traditions, all of whom had to live together, said Mr Oxley. Each group was proud of its respective heritage and was not prepared to allow its own ethos to be overwhelmed

by the ways of life of the other peoples around it “Ours is a pragmatic—and, let’s face it, largely an empirical—attempt to solve the problems which history has thrust upon South Africa, which may turn out to be the laboratory for such relationships in the world of the future,” he said. The great problem of Africa lay in reconciling the immaturity of people who had suddenly been given importance in world affairs with the highly sophisticated complexities of twentiethcentury civilisation. At a time when news and comment were often biased, when mass thinking was emotional rather than cerebral, when information was maliciously and deliberately perverted, it was necessary to know the background and to have an open-minded, rational approach to the discussion, said Mr Oxley. Early Settlement The only inhabitants of the Cape at the time of the first European settlement were a handful of nomadic bushmen and Hottentot, and it was not until well into the eighteenth century that European settlers encountered the Bantu who were moving south, said Mr Oxley. The white man thus had a moral, legal, and historical right to southern Africa. There had been, and was, no close homogeneity among black Africans any more than in the people of Europe or Asia. The imposition of political borders did not necessarily create homogeneity among those within the boundaries. The white man in South Africa realised his responsibility to the less-developed people of his country and was doing what he could to enable the African to catch up with twentieth-century living, said Mr Oxley. It had to be decided what was the best system in which there was full respect by one group for another and where the identity of each was not lost, said Mr Oxley. A simi-

lar problem with the Maori was faced in New Zealand more than 100 years ago. Decision “Right” "We do not believe that circumstances in South Africa permit of Integration—and so we have chosen the course of separation,” said Mr Oxley. “That our decision is the right one seems to be more and more justified by events occurring throughout the rest of Africa. “It seems true to us that, in a society where the less advanced are numerically superior, an inferiority complex can lead only to an explosive situation with attendant threats and d gnafsorerwfifib threats and dangers for the entire society and perhaps for the whole world.”

The South African policy of separate development was a carefully conceived plan, complex and delicate in its balance and structure, and was being implemented with great care and regard and benevolence to provide the richest future for all, said Mr Oxley. “Only now, after more than 50 years of basic education and benevolent South African tutelage, has it become possible for us to move further and faster in the development of reserved territories and to begin handing over administration to the developing Africans," he said. Eventually each of the national groups of South Africa would have an identity of its

own, an<* the various Bantu groups would have their own citizenship and nationalities in land set aside for them. Critics Of Policy The prevalent criticism of South Africa’s internal policy was a result partly of deliberate misrepresentations about the situation, said Mr Oxley. This was part of a coldlycalculated endeavour to upset existing law and order. It was no secret that other African powers wished to gain control over the wealth of South Africa, and attempts were made to take over the country by fair means or foul. “Without doubt the nonwhite in South Africa is better off than the non-whites anywhere else in Africa, and indeed, than in many other parts of the world,” said Mr Oxley. “We will not yield to forces and pressures attempting to halt or prevent us doing what we sincerely believe is right We will resist the blackmailing of malevolent political foes even when others . . . succumb without conscience and join the alliance of those who are arrayed against us.”