Evening star., 1953-03-23

4CAlOdSoAo anu VIC pAOICSlO1 dCC
Of Nyasaland.
PrO-BritiSh BaStiOn.
Rhodesian Spokesmen say
privately that CAF- Spon-
Sored by the British govern
ment-in time would become
a pro-BritiSh baStion in
Africa, blocking any ambi-
tions South Africa may have
northwardS.
East African whites soon
must choose between using
purely military or military
plus economic means to re-
store peace to the fertile Ken
yam farmlands, where Mau
Mau tribesmen are terrorizing
the colonists.
Governments in some of
these regions have taken on
wide new powers to crush
any show of political defiance
or physical resistance.
The Malan government, sup
ported by the main opposition
party, got parliamentary au-
thority to suspend most South
African laws whenever pub
lie safety" demands it. It
now has the right to proclaim
a state of emergency, with
draw civil rights, ban news
papers, set up concentration
camps, conflscate property
and fog and Jail passive re-
sisters and their supporters.
Since 1851, Justice Minister
G. R. SWart has more than
doubled the number of secret
members of the South African
police force, according to an
official source. An estimated
200-strong group has the job
of hunting down elements
considered subversive under
broad terms of an act out
laWing communism.
Authorities Standing BY.
In the Rhodesias and Nyas-
aland civil authorities are
standing by to deal with any
demonstrations against CAT
that may come from the 81
million Negroes. In some
areas Negroes are well-organ-
lied to express bitter opposi-
ton to the project, which they
fear might lose them the pro-
lection of the British colonial
Office.
More than once since the
war, the black copper minersl
of North Rhodesia have
downed tools at a word from
the strong labor unions.
Britain rushed two battal-
ions of infantrymen to Kenya
this month to help local au-I
thoritieS cope with Mau Mau.
This secret society of Negro
terrorists, vowed to drive the
whites out of the country, were
said to be switching opera
tionS from farmlands into
crowded towns.
Disorder and instability I'M
Africa below the Sahara un-
doubtedly weaken Western in
terests in the cold war against
communism. For those vast
tracts of jungles, swamps.
husbands, mountains and
deserts, where three million
whites rule more than 100 mil
lion blacks, form more than a
manpower reservoir. too. They
give forth such minerals asI
manganese, diamonds, copper,
gold. thorium, vanadium and
uranium.
Important to Defense.
What's more, for the Allies
fighting a global war, South
Africa would be an essential
refuelling station and work.
shop
Africa is still peopled large
ly by primitive natives but
the Negroes in South Africa S
slums and in the parchedI
tribal reserves to the north
are discovering a proud, some
times explosive, nationalism I'M
their cropping quest to share
the white mans civilization.
From the highlands of Ken
va through the North Rhode
sian copper mines to the sham
ty towns of the union, the
thirst for learning and for
material and political ad-
vancement is to be found.
The Negroes few represent
ative, responsible leaders do
not want to push the white
man into the sea. They are
we'll aware of the white mans
skill and science, essential to-
fight disease and develop re-
sources. They have neverthe-
less set political equality as a.
long term objective. In the i'm
mediate future, even top men
among South Africa's passive
resisters say they would settle
for better dinner pals, a linn
tied franchise. and relaxation
of some Jim Crow laws they
deem unjust.
Britain has given limited
self rule to the Gold Coast
and Nigeria in the west, hop
ing thus to keep them in the
commonwealth.
DR.. Malan says this could
lead to the expulsion of the
white man from everywhere
between South Africa and the
Sahara"