.c. — As a regular reader of the Spectatdr over many years,
the bitter and repeated attacks that you print on the racial politics of the Central. African Federa- tion move me to mention a few facts that seem never to have been printed.
There are many hundreds of laws here which differentiate between black and white men on skin colour only; the franchise is only one of them. They cover a wide range : the sale of meat, tobacco, milk and all edible grain is controlled for the White but not the Black; marriages, the registering of births, income tax, contracting, are all differential legislation for Black and White; the non-payment of wages for a Black is a criminal offence, for a White, civil. The reason for these and a host of other laws is that a very high percentage of Africans, and by that I mean more than 99 per cent., are not in the same social or economic pategory as Europeans and Indians.
You cannot bring African milk sales under the Dairy Act, nor can the income-tax collector check on the number of an African's children. If your con- tributors cannot understand why this is so, then they should come and see for themselves before getting into your print. Instead of prating of universal suf- frage for Africans they should think if it is reason- able for an African who must live under one set of laws to have a say in forming those under' witch Europeans have to live. If and when it is practical and Africans wish to come under European laws, both our political parties are agreed that they shall have a vote.
You cannot put a voting paper in the hand of a man who has never held a pen, nor can he be trusted to use such a power till he has learnt that a newspaper has other uses than cigarette-making. Our Federal Parliament should go far in that it has only two middle-of-the-road parties who are almost agreed on African advancement. There is no extreme Right gro- White party as in the Union of South Africa.— Yours faithfully,
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