17 JUNE 1960, Page 17

THE SCHIZOID STATE

SIR,—If one believes as Mr. Roland Vincent Smith does, that the situation in South Africa is best described as a struggle for power between black and white, then my article 'The Schizoid State' may seem irrelevant. But if .me sees the essential struggle as one between racialists and non-racialists, then it is relevant to discuss racialism in terms suitable to it, which are psychological.

Most educated Africans are, or were, non-racialist. Most white South Africans are racialist (This divi- sion complicates the fundamental issue, but does not alter it.) The tragedy of South Africa now is that the whites are driving the blacks to be racialist. Afri- kaners respect black nationalists: what they detest are 'liberals' of all races. If under this pressure the struggle does become one simply for power between black and white, then it may be best, as Mr. Smith suggests, for most visitors to stay silent. But until this happens the struggle is not a localised but a universal one, and anyone has a right to speak on the non-racialist side who is clear that he is not, and hopes never to be, a racialist himself, and has tried to imagine what this might involve him in.—Yours faithfully,