10 OCTOBER 1931, Page 28

new Mason-Dixie line is what Mr. Walter Aidan Cotton ayipears

to advbcate in his book Racial Segregation -in South 'Africa (The Sheldon Press., 2s. Gd.). On one side of the line white immigrants should continue to enter in as large numbers as they please, but on the other side there should be no increase in the numerical proportion of white settlers to the native population. We should hold the country, lie writes, " as rulers, settlers, industrialists, builders of roads and railways. But not in mass : no large population. Of the whole of this system you Africans are to have the freedom." He sees no alternative to a policy of segregation except in the complete fusion of the two races, and holds up the bogey of -physical fusion as a peremptory invitation to segregration. He is not optimistic that a policy of segregation will be put into effect and we are doubtful whether it is not too late to attempt such a territorial adjustment in South Africa: but in any case Mr. Cotton's sug- gestion is neither one thing nor the other. It certainly is not segregation, and its adoption would not alleviate the present• situation in the slightest degree. It is too little realistic for the serious student and not sufficiently provocative to challenge the complacency of the politician.