THE DILEMMA OF SOUTH AFRICA

And what a dilemma it is! Urged to write about South Africa after taking an extensive and intensive tour in the Union in 1950, and in other sections of Africa the following year for research reasons, the author has given a clear and quietly written summary of the overwhelming racial issue which forms the basis of national policy. With Mr. Hatch we talk to members of the National Party in power and the SABRA intellectuals who propound a policy of total segregation of Europeans and Non Europeans and have legislated to that effect despite their need for Native labor and a Native market to prosper.- In the urban areas and on the Reserves we survey the results of a policy built on fear of the downfall of white supremacy. We talk with Indian, Coloured, and Native leaders who are being pressed into a combined opposition to the Nationalists by extreme legislation, but who have not yet come to terms with one another. The author recognizes the sincerity of the divergent groups and their feeling that South Africa is their homeland from which only the British can retreat, and he exposes its reactionary quality in face of the opposing liberal trends in giving the Natives a part in government in neighboring African territories. A venture in government which will shock those who do not know of it, but whose roots require our understanding and whose future demands our attention.