Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1955-11-26
Black Sash So.
Continued from Page One)
Capetown.
sMnurunrc' inc Routes

Capetown.
'M0urners' Line Routes
Rather more embarrassingly,
they form a silently disappearing
reception corps along the routes of
Prime Minister Johannes G. Strij-
dom and his cabinet ministers in
nationwide campaign covering
every single occasion at which they
appear publicly.
Incessant haunting of the min
listers is directed specifically a
gainst the governments Senate
Act which aroused recent wide
spread controversy and of which
the Senate dissolution is partial
augmentation. The next step is
the election Nov. Is of a new Sen
ate on the basis of electoral divi-
sions instead of the previous pro-
portional representation. This will
give the government q seats to
the opposition's IL, instead Of 80
to 10 in the old house and an over
all two-thirds majority of the up
per and lower houses.
This majority will enable the
government in the forthcoming
January parliamentary session to
remove the colored and mixed-race
voters from the common franchise
with white men and provide them
with separate indirect representa-
ton as part Of the apartheid race
segregation policies.
Thus the goal which has split
South African whites for five years
will be reached, but at cost of
further prejudicing non-whites and
estrangement Of English South At
ricans, who see beyond the colored
vote limitations the endangering
of parallel constitutional safe
guards for the English language
in this bilingual English-Afrikaans
commonwealth nation.
Cabinet ministers apparently are
becoming increasingly embarrassed
at a personal level by the black
sash women, but hope that the
women can actually swerve the gov
eminent from it's intention is moth
ing but unrealistic.
Such hopes must lie in the oppo-
sition United party, currently con-
sidering testing the Senate Act in
the courts.
The significance of the sash
movement lies elsewhere. This
spontaneous movement of house
vices across the country is rally
ing point for government opposi-
ton, moribund since the collapse
of the war veterans torch COM
mandos" in 1853.
Torch Flickers
1t is unlikely that the torch COM
mandos' virility, which swept the
nation, can be regained, but the
sash women are tanning anew the
torchmen's old symbolic flame of
opposition which has beer flicker
ing but family in the face of pub
lie apathy and consolidation Of gov
eminent power and diminishing
confidence in the. United Party.
More specifically, the sash wo-
men have reused the women voters.
Some quite extraordinarily determ-
ined protest scenes have greeted
the Senate Act.
Several thousand women marched
to muffled drums in various pro-
test professions. Some 100 women
camped out in freezing Pretoria
weather for two days in similar
gesture. And the significance of
this reused women's voting
strength is apparently recognized
by the Nationalists, for Finance
Minister Eric Louw has called for
"less conservative" attitude to-
ward women in politics and called
upon the additionally domestic
Afrikaner womanhood to enter the
political arena.
Mere Formally
The election of a new Senate is
a mere formality by political party
caucuses in each of the four prov.
inces comprising members of the
parliamentary lower house ane
provincial councils. The English
Province of Natal is the only one
which will return anti-governmen'
senators, the Transvaal, the Cape
and the Orange Free State being
solidly Nationalist.
Unless the United Party upset'
the act in the appeals court, spe
officially enlarged with government
appointees for consideration Of sucl
constitutional matters, the govern
ment appears set to win its loni
fight for colored vote limitation
| in he forthcoming parliamentar!
| ~~~~snN