LETTERS Colonialistic
Sir: I hereby request you to immediately suspend and cancel my subscription to the Spectator and reimburse me for the re- maining part of it. The reason? . . . I have been absolutely shocked by the articles on South Africa contained in the Spectator issue of 27 July namely 'South African cant' (leader) and 'A job for the army' by Stephen Robinson. When, today, the world, and in particular the Western, democratic world, is trying to improve human rights wherever possible and neces- sary, here I find in your magazine two authors supporting with incredible cyni- cism, short-sightedness and totally biased arguments the white racist regime of South Africa, which is based on the colonialistic- type apartheid principle.
There are just too many hair-rising statements in these two articles (especially Mr Robinson's): 'Your average white South African who has sweated (???) through Sharpeville and Soweto"The manpower and firepower (???) are avail-
able . . 'The prospect of doing without his personal computer or his German sports car is far more irksome to the white businessman than the occasional twinge of conscience about the township down the road' etc, etc. Reading such statements I can see that there are still people who believe they are in the colonialistic times, the Zulu wars period, the era of the `politique des cannonieres'!! A much more realistic statement is made by another well-known English weekly magazine: `The South African government, like the governments of Eastern Europe, believes in crushing dissent rather than dealing with it by negotiation.'
R. Schmied
Vienna International Centre, PO Box 400, Vienna
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