St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1953-04-24

back TO power last week for five
more years with an increased
parliamentary majority.
Malan's Nationalist Party cap
tured five seats in the 159 mem
Der lower chamber from the oppo-
sition Unified Party, and had not
lost a single seat Of its own
Ths results Of the South Afr4-
can election signaled a dangerous
era ahead in racial relations for
this member Of the British Com
monwealth. With Malan capturing
81 seats in the House Of Assem-
bly,, lower house Of Parliament, as
compared with the Opposition's
total Of as, this definitely estab-
fishes Malan as supreme ruler.
Won with Less Votes
The Nationalist won with a
minority vote, as in 1913. They
were able to do this because South
Africa is SO divided by districts
that a rural vote has more weight
than a city vote. Cour state Of
Georgia has similar divisions to
give rural voters advantage.D
With the count completed for
149 Of the I59 seats. the Nation
alists had $4,000 popular votes
to $4,000 for the opposition. This
gave the Nationalist about A
per cent Of the total counted and
the opposition about So percent.
Preceded by an ugly national
election campaign where lusty
citizens (white) used eggs, toma-
toes, rocks, clubs, and bicycle
chains as weapons in debates,
both parties polled bigger aggre-
bate votes than ever before. The
atmosphere during the heavy bal
loting was tense Armed police
stood by all polls for this was the
white mans election,
The city districts, where the
United Party led by J. G. NJ.
Strauss, had its main strength,
were counted first and showed a
heavy early vote against Malan.
It's matorities SCARED in many
safe electoral divisions and dented
the Nationalist majorities in races
for some seats.
But Malan's grip ON South
AfFica's baelEwOOds voters seemed
TO assure him Of a comfortable re-
turn to power.
The prime minister's party.
stood on its severe policy Of abb
solute racial segregation, (spart-
heidi as opposed to softer meth
DDS for enforcing white suprem-
acy favored by the United Party.
Both parties pledged themselves
to uphold the dominant position
Of the 100000 whites, who are
outnumbered here four to one, by
the Africans.
The Nationalist, with a GER
tain five years OF rule coming up,
have declared that their first aim
is 10 rush the developing non
white resistance to segregation
laws and to scrap the right of the
independent judiciary to pass up
on laws enacted by Parliament.
To that end, Malan's govern
ment has received power to de-
clare emergencies, suspend most
laws, and Jail or whip persons who
object to existing Of future fu-
ture laws It has also indicated
that Il would scrap traditional
democratic rights If necessary to
preserve the supremacy Of South
Africa's whites over 1900. 900 Ne
groes, Indians and mulattoes.
TIE long term goal Of the all
Boer Dutch-descended cabinet,
cabinet, however. is a republic
free Of the British crown. The
Malan victory deepened the tradi-
tional rift between Briton and
BOer, between the industrial
towns and their rural districts.
Malan, 20, is the No. / white
man in the black continent and he
is so conscious Of his race that he
does not even have direct contact
with the ''non-Europeans" in his
country.
-. and this is South Africa
under the white supremacist
Prime Minister.
The black man in South Africa
has not shared fully in the bene-
fits Of civilization under the guar
dianship of the white man Skill
led work is almost exclusively the
province Of the white. Only in the
last decade, with the development
OF secondary or consumer goods
industries, have natives begun to
crowd into some OF the semi-sIVil-
led jobs.
In 1850 the average Income Of
the native was about SIS a month.
The husband brought home close
20 ST Of this and his wife made
up the rest through washing and
other jobs.
The infant mortality rate
among whites is $50 per 1000
live births. The rate among Afri-
cans is about $50 per 1000 live
births.
The death rate for whites from
tuberculosis in 1919, according 10
the ministry Of health was 25.4s