SOUTH AFRICA SIR,—I have for long disliked the tone of
your re- portage of African affairs, which is as bigoted in its way as that of the most Right-wing Rhodesian news- paper. Your attitude towards the white people out here often appears to parody Lord Malvern's famous dictum that 'All Africans are liars.' For you all settlers are liars. You are both equally reactionary. An illustration of my point is given in your issue of May 7 where, after an account of various atrocities perpetrated by the South African Government, you retnark that 'some English sportsmen, nevertheless, at Arundel Castle and Worcester, found it agreeable to play games with white South Africans,' implying that the touring cricketers were in some way re- sponsible for the atrocities. To what extent are the inhabitants of a country liable for the misdeeds of a government which not all of them voted for? As you know, the majority of white South Africans voted against the Nationalist Government at the last elec- tion. That their votes were ineffective was largely due to the British-donated constitution of 1910 which (a) did not grant universal franchise, and (b) loaded the constituency distribution in favour of the ultra- conservative Boer countryside. Thus your gibe would
have been better directed at the English cricketers. Furthermore, if everybody were to adopt your atti- tude towards the subjects of a wicked government, nobody would find it agreeable to play games against members of a nation which not long ago launched an unprovoked attack on a weaker country (Egypt), and which tolerated the slaughter of Nkata Bay, Britain's very own Sharpeville, now self-righteously forgotten.—Yours faithfully, c/o Central African Examiner. Box 2597, Salisbury, S. Rhodesia
R. CURT IN
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