EVIL OMENS IN COLOUR

Shannon News, 4 May 1926, Page 4

EVIL OMENS IN COLOUR

“DEEP-SEATED DISMAY AT TREND OF DAW.” BISHOP SAYS RESULT MAY BE TERRIBLE. CAPETOWN, March 5. There are many thinking people in South Africa who are justifiably alarmed at the colour segregation policy of the present Government. These people have found outspoken champion of their thoughts in the Bishop of Pretoria, Dr. Talbot, who has not only attacked - Cio. native and Asiatic policy of the Government, but has now shown many of the dangers and fallacies that lie hidden in the Colour Bar Bill. It would seem that this Bill, limiting the labour activities of the natives, will shortly bo on the Statute Book of the Union. Nevertheless, a solemn warning of the probable consequences has been written by the Bishop of Pretoria in the March issue of “Kingdom,” the official organ of his diocese.

Beginning with the argument that Christianity stands or falls by its assertion of the equal value of all souls before God, Dr. Talbot goes on to define the South African native problem. “At present,” he writes, “the gj-eat mass of native life is at a lower revel of human attainment than the European. Not that we can say thai the native is inherently inferior to the European. Evidence from America of what has been attained by the negro suggests that he is not inherently inferior, but that he is in in the main at a lower level of development compared with the European. It would be sheer sentimentality to deny this. “And yet this conclusion does not mitigate my deep-seated dismay at the trend of present South African legislation at the expense of the native. I cannot think that the need to protect the white worker from being swamped by native labour justifies the introduction of the principle of the colour bar into the law of the land. I do not disregard unsyfii.pathetically the anxiety of white labour lest it bo swamped, for, after all, it is working with a partner, namely, capital, that has evinced again and again a terrible predilection for cheap lab out. I noticed that the president of the Chamber of Mines, in a recent public speech,, had > little more to contribute to the discussion of the problems of South African industry than the contention that the one thing to do was to import and to keep on importing as much cheap native labour to the mines as possible. But I do not believe that the protection of the white worker should be secured by custom, by negotiation and regulation within industry and not by legislation. In the Wrong Direction.

“Surely this legislation is in the wrong direction, namely, that of discouraging native growth. The right direction is that of encouraging native progress. If the black men can rise to the level of capacity with the white men, then it should be the endeavour of the white men, not to keep them out, but to bring - them in at the white level or conditions and reward. This would entail the surmounting of great difficulties. It would be no short cut to this end, it would be no solution of the native problem. There B is no short cut; 'there is no solution. • There is no short cut through this whole business. But it is the right direction. It- would fill the native’s soul .with hope and aspiration. It would leave the road open before him. “No doubt some people will say to me, ‘Yes, but the Colour Bar Bill is part of the Prime Minister’s general scheme of native policy. It is part of the policy of differential treatment .namely, working towards the development of. native life in native reserves in the country and the securing of the fullest industrial opportunity for , Europeans.’ Well, I think we must do our best to believe that, and I intend to do so. But the Colour Bar Bill is a wretched preliminary to the r«st of the policy. It is no better than passing a harrow over a cricket pitch before the match is begun. “It is hai’d to believe that a measure of segregation is feasible such as would really compensate native aspirations for their loss in industry by increased opportunities in their reserves. It is hard to believe because it is so very doubtful whether South Africa either can, or v.ill, do without native labour in industry. . . . South Africa is in the very salient of the battle line which colour questions have drawn across the whole world. God gi’ant her leaders a vision of the greatness of the issues they are handling - .”

i Evil Omen for Future. “Leaving on one side the sense which it is hard to be without that the Colour Bar Bill is but an instance of internal bargaining between different elements in a coalition, the passing of the Bill by the Assembly is an evil omen for ’ the future. Even though it is leniently and gently administered, it . cannot but engender a sense in the intelligent native’s mind that the white man means to keep the black man down.

“It is not only a question of its actual provision nor its administrabut its symbolic character. It will symbolise the inherent inferiority of the native and the resolve to use him only as a means to white convenience. It will hang in front of native hope and aspiration that which suppresses, confines and excludes. I think it is a and essentially tyrannical measure, and if it is finally ratified it will have in-, evitably disastrous results to the true peace and wealth of South Africa. “It makes it worse that Eha Bill

includes Indians with natives in its scope, for the argument about actual inferiority is not nearly so strong in regard to the Indian as in regard to the Bantu. There are in India, and there may well be in South Africa, Indians who, though ’of dark skin, aro on a level with the - finest flower of European culture. That an able, gifted son of India should be debarred on the ground of colour from rising to his fullest development and capacity is a great wrong, and it brings out into added relief the injustice done to the Banuu peoples.”