Evening star., 1925-07-26
RACE CLASH HANGS
OVER SOUTH AFRICA
Blacks Are Realizing Power
and Many Believe That
Danger Is Great.
BY G. WARD PRICE.
BY Cable to The Star and the North Amer
lean Newspaper Alliance.

LIVINGSTONE, South Africa, July
25.-One problem only matters in
South Africa today-the threatening
clash between black and white.
ThiSsracial danger drawfs into in
signifieance all other questions.
A few days ago 1 was walking be-
hind the Prince of Wales along the
front of 4 900 half-naked natives wear
ing their traditional fighting kit of
feathers, fringes and leopard skin
girdles.
The heads of some were bound with
the Wooden beads that mean their
wearfr has killed his man. In one
hand these tribesmen held their pie
bald ashields of ht-stretched oXhide,
IN tie other bunch of steel-headed
assegais and a long club. A deep
war khant came from their ranks, and
q now and then a 1.-the, muscular, black
bodH would bound out of the ranks.
leapifg forward over the ground to
n stab sand batter imaginary foes with
spear or knobkerry. Their eyes were
set fn a sort of frenzy. for to these
warriors the practice of arms is still
an almost religious duty.
!. Yelled Threat Is Seen.
"Aand what do you think will be
the sqd of all this?" said a voice at
my seibow. War, Every one of
those songs is a yelled threat"
II swas a South African officer of
special standing and experience who
spoke. a man who knows the natives
and their tongues as we'll as any one
''The same causes are at work now
as haye produced so many South At
ricaR native uprisings of the past" he
addeh. as we passed Il group of Euro
peanH girls, with bare arms and pretty
frocKs, busy photographing the gesti-
,I-x&s
cerns than II they had been a side
show st Ccney Island instead Of part
of fense primitive population among
which, the whites live as a scattered
handul, protected only by few score
police of their own race.
Elbn't you ever feel little anxious
for four womenfolk among all these
savae ees?" 1 asked a white settler the
:, same day,
'Apious? Not in the least" he
answered with obvious sincerity.
THEY'RE the best-tempered fellows in
the lworld and devoted to British
rulef
Views in Sharp Contrast.
Those are two contrasting views
bothi strongly held in South Africa
HRherto the good temper and happy
disposition of the native races have
kepr them in the subordination to
whiSh they were reduced by the stern
methods of the earlier white settlers,
especially the Dutch.
Byt, they are still a fighting stock
and Fare being worked upon by new
and Ppwerful influences. The growth
OF the spirit of opposition among them
wasf fnstanced in Johannesburg last
week. when an order that native
women out-of-doors after 10 pm. must
carry passes was met by a campaign
of rAssive resistance, in which black
wonfeh of undoubted good character
courTed arrest It is the best educated
among the natives who are often the
centRTs of disaffection.
Frpfn time to time the very efficient
natife intelligence department of the
South African police discover traces
OF khe activity of the Omalita. a
bloofthirsty native secret society.
Seventeen of them were arrested in
the Uransvaal only.a few weeks ago,
and f0ne, who was struck down as he
tried ito murder a policeman, was a
maH who had served six years as cook
in e Pretoria hotel.
9 Whites Are Indifferent
Tke form of the approaching racial
i conaiet cannot be foreseen, but it's
Il elenaents continually increase. The
shadow of its coming darkens the sun
lit Sky. Yet, with the apathy that
the sapproach of u great menace so
j often: breeds. the average white in
4 habFant of South Africa remains as
indinerent to signs and portents as
did lhoSt Europeans to warnings of
the great war. Politicians frame legis-
latiye breakwaters against the spread
4 ing sea of color, but know we'll what
weak eXpedients they are, and though
sorH of the ablest men plainly sec
disaster drawing nearer, they have no
II practical remedy tc offer.
Ok tfhiS SI1hiact 7 baVo ri
q the past six weeks the views of highly
u plaoed soldiers, who believe that only
Il thes machine gun can save South
Afrfa for the white man; of well
knokn historians of this country, who
thir11 it cannot be saved at all; of
newspaper editors of lifelong ex-
d periR pee in South Africa, who expect
the fGrisis within 10 or Is years, and
only hope that people in England and
Amsr1ca when it comes will under
Il sta1d the position of Europeans here
Il Palliatives Are Suggested.
Shave spoken, too, with members
Il of Te government and of the House
4 of'ASsembly. They suggest palliAtives,
difhfult to realize, like the segrega-
tom Of all natives on reservations.
Missionaries agree that contact with
town life and education on European
lines thas made the Kaff1r a detribal-
ized{ and discontented being. And the
educational authorities at the head
of such institutions as the large ma
tives colleges of LoTedale believe that
ourt duty as a superior race is to
4 teadh the native everything we can
andf then let the result work itself
out sunder Providence
Al, these people, with their differ
ent points of view, admit that the
native question has lately acquired an
urg4ncy it never had before and that
4 theScause is the rapid spread of
feeling Of racial unity among the
\ blad31 peoples of South Africa. Old
tribal jealousies that once acted as a
& BARRIER to combination have disap-
peafed under the white mans rule.
4 Languages are fast fusing. The
I bla4lss of every clan-zulus, Swazis,
4 BaSItos, Shangaans-are realizing for
4 theifrst time that they are members
of Spe Bantu stock.
Have Common Grievance.
Their new spirit of kinsmanship
4 finds easy focus in a common griev-
ance+that the European has taken
theb1 country away from them.
'sAVhen the white man came to