Stir,—Mrs. Scott and Lord March quote the first half of
a sentence, about the value of the African vote, from Colonel Stirling's article to prove that distrust is misplaced. It is in the second half of the sentence that the chuse of that mistrust appears: '. . . such [African] Preponderance would not threaten the stability of the State nor the confidence of the civilised European, African or Asian provided that the vote is exercised in the spirit of the Capricorn Contract.'
What limitations on the exercise of the vote Will the Capricorn Contract impose? What do Africans know about this Capricorn Contract except that it comes from men who supported the Central African Federal Constitution which allows Africans to choose four repre- sentatives out of the thirty-six members of the Federal' Assembly? Is that its spirit still? From the quotation given above Africans learn that the Contract will not threaten the stability of the State whose foundations they believe, to be injustice and racial discrimina- tion. In another part of Colonel Stirling's !trade they learn that under the Contract,
• • . it will be constitutionally impossible for aitY one race to advance its own interests at the expense of another race.' Africans sec themselves as a race deprived of political and economic influence. They wish to advance their own interests in these fields. Can it be done except at the expense of the racial groups that Monopolise this influence? The Capricorn Society will say that it has 'always been its contention that political levelling will be to the advantage of the Europeans and not at their expense. I expect that a quotation can be found to prove that it has said so, but it has not been said in plain language here and African leaders must show plain statements to their followers if they are to be sent to the Convention with a mandate to agree to a Contract.
In African communities today those who 81iPPort the present order of society because it brings an improved standard of living arc in conflict with those who are opposed to it, 111 spite of this improvement, because of the subordinate position which it offers to ,A,ricans. If the Capricorn Society chooses all the Africans who are to attend their Conven- tion from the former group and rejects those the sec(md as 'extremist "black" racialists' it will not have present there a true repre- sentation of African opinion and its Conven- t' II will prove nothing except that hand- picked 'moderate' Africans can be found. I have certain Africans in mind whose Presence nee at the Convention will be, for me, a test of Capricorn utility.—Yours faithfully,
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