om by W. A. HUNTON ‘Hush-hush at L ake § HE news item, datelined i Lake Success, N.Y,, Oct. "~ 15, stated: “The UN Trusteeship Committee, by a vote of 27 to 20, with four ab- stentions, today directed the Union of South Africa to sub- mit a trustee agreement for ‘Southwest Africa to the next Session of the General Assembly.” Tt represented at least a par- tial triumph of the non-colonial Powers ‘over the United States, Britain and ‘other colonial pow- ers defending the ‘white em- Pire” policies of General Jan Smuts of the Union of South Africa. But it wasn’t played up by the daily press. It rated no banner headlines as the contro- versy over Greece had done. For all the public could glean from the pages of their daily news- Papers, it might haye been the disposition of some remote Pa- cific atoll. What the United Nations spent two weeks debating was actual- ly a twofold problem vitally af- /fecting the future of eight and a half million Bantu people and another two and a half million “non-Europeans” who have been Systematically exploited and vir- tually enslaved by alien overlords among a two-million white popu- lation. There was, first, the question Cf whether the UN would pér- imit..the Dominion of South Af- rica :to flout the authority of the international organization and maintain exclusive owner- Ship of Southwest Africa, a for- mer German colony of 300,000 African inhabitants and 30,000 Whites, which South Africa re- Ceived from the League of Na- tions in trust under the mandate System. All other such mandate terri- tories which have not won inde- bendence—even though it be a dubious. independence ~ have been prought under the UN trusteeship system. But the Smuts government refuses to recognize the authority of the ON over Southwest Africa. Whe ‘second issue was whether the UN would let South Africa ignore the instructions given last year to clean up its vicious sys- tem of racial discrimination which the government of India brought to the “attention of the General Assembly—and the world. ' Both questions were thrashed Sut completely at last year’s As- Sembly meeting and verdicts against South Africa were won both counts. It was because the Smuts regime had openly @efied the UN decisions that the. two questions were again on ie Assembly's agenda, this year. It boils down to whether the Peoples living in colonies and minority peoples elsewhere have any rights which the United Na- tions collectively and the mem- ber states individually are nd to respect and safeguard. You won't get the answer to this by reading the UN Charter. ® Charter says some very nice things about the “sacred trust’ help colonial peoples forward, _48Qd about “respect for human ‘ights for all without distinction ® ’S to race”; but when it comes “own to specific cases, the im- Perialist powers manage to “in- terpret” the Charter to suit their : purposes. On the South African ques- “ons, as in the case of all the other vital problems before. the FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1947 ‘ Spanish os Morocco uccess” eee Eritrea 5 : x Portud. uk bys | pierre ; : Ethiopia. eon : a, ff Gold Coast [2 British, ‘ _ [Cameroons Rio Muni =2Con oh fran ) eee 2 52 SR all he ¢ S pensees peacces | Italian prominent member of the Council on Afri- can Affairs, Paut Robeson, world- famous singer, has led the cam- paign to bring to Somali US and Canada an awaremess of conditions in Africa, UN, the forces of reaction and imperialism aim at converting the international ..organizstion from an instrument to promote world progress and peace into an instrument for perpetuating their domination over colonial and subject peoples, and into a weapon to be used against the chief adversary of world im- perialism, the Soviet Union. E Union of Souta Africa represents the same fascist threat in that part of the world that Spain is in Europe and Ar- gentina is in this hemisphere. That the government of India brought charges against the Union of South Africa is itself an indication of the seriousness with which Asians, as well -as Africans, regard the menace of the Herrenvolk spirt prevailing in South Africa and spreading northward through that contin- ent. The Herrenvolk spirit of white South Africa is coupled with an aggressive imperialism. The white ruling class in this Brit- ish dominion with the backing of the Churchills in Britain, has designs for annexing not ‘only Southwest Africa, but also ad- jacent territories which are now under the jurisdiction of the British Colonial Office, known as the high commission terri- ~ General Smuts’ Qa wes ‘ _ By LESLIE MORRIS . “fixed policy” of General, T smuts of the Union of South Africa, is “to maintain white -supremacy.” They are his own words. The General, who is pic- tured by the tories as some sort of an elder oracle, is defying the United Nations and pursuing with grim deadliness his policy of the. “color bar.” His government is conducting a vigorous propaganda cam- paign to try to blot out the ugly. facts about South Africa. He has assembled 150 photo- graphs designed “to meet ad- verse criticism abroad of the Union’s treatment of its Na- tives.” : : The hideousness of the “color par” is not given any publicity in the press and our fellow Do- minion in the Commonwealth is covered up by our own govern- ment. © Paut Robeson, who is exposing the truth about South Africa, ag time to see with both eyes and fight with both fists. Unless we . . . see the fight for democracy in South Africa, China and the whole world of colonial- ism as part of our own struggles, we'll never defeat reaction here in America.” ; : Smuts, according to the 1946 decision of the UN General As- sembly, was to report to the present session on the question ‘of discrimination against South Africa’s 200,000 Indian people. After turning down Smuts de- mand for the annexation of South West Africa, his govern- ment was brought to the bar of the UN. Both the U.S. and Canada voted against requesting the report. : [= by Smuts, a “ruling nation” of two million whites main- tain their domination over eight million Africans and a _ mil- lion or more ‘colored” people of mixed racial, non-European ori- gin. : The fabulous “wealth of dia- monds and gold is extracted for the benefit of the white ruling group by the maintenance of the “color bar.” The African pays taxes, but cannot vote with the whites or hold office in parliament or local councils. : Democratic rights exist for tories of Bechuanaland, Swazi- land and Basutoland. The old dream of Cecil Rhodes to see a unified British empire established in Africa stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean js still very much alive in the minds of Smuts and his colleagues even in this day of declining British power. The Union of South Africa is of key importance in the re- cently publicized schemes of the British War Office to establish a new zone of military opera- tions spanning the African con- tinent with its forward. supply base centered in Kenya, South ‘white empire’ Europeans only. An elevator en- trance in Johannesburg carries this typical sign:-“This lift is for Europeans only. Service lift- is provided for tradesmen, non- Europeans, prams and dogs.” On a public pool at Parys, Orange Free State is’ this sign: “Non- Europeans and dogs not allowed. By order Town Clerk.” Africans in the cities cannot ride in the same street car as whites. The ancient communal ‘lands of the Africans have been stolen from them. Less than one thous- and wealthy white farmers hold more land than eight million Africans, who are herded on “re- serves.” Land hunger, starvation, ab- ‘normally high mortality rates, are imposed by the Smuts govern- ment to compel the Africans to work in the gold and diamond mines. Over 400,000 of them toil as “contract laborers” for “wages” averaging $12 monthly; white mine workers average $4.50 a day. @ N August, 1946, 60,000 African ‘miners struck for $2 a day pay. Bullets and batons broke the Africa, and its rear supply base and center of heavy manufactur- er in South Africa. These schemes, it is openly acknow- ledged, have as their target the __ Soviet Union, although it is of course stated that fortified Africa is to be used in “defense of western democracy against an offensive and expanding com- munism.” _ These are the considerations which indicate why the South the people of the — Ae African issues discussed by the UN are deserving of far more attention than they have re- ceived in the daily press—or it might better be said that they explain why the issues were not played up by the daily press. — strike. The leaders of the Com- munist party were arrested and charged with sedition in connec- tion with the strike. A long trial* resulted in the temporary. with- drawal of charges last week. _ In 1935 the South African gov- ernment reported: “The educa- tion of a white child prepares him for a life in a dominant so- ciety, and the education of a black child for’ a subordinate society.” There is one school for every 430 Europeans, one for every 00 “colored” and one for every 1,850 Africans, the latter left mainly to missionaries. : It ‘is this hideous “civilization,” built on the bones of millions of African and other slaves, which the “elder statesman” Smuts, darling of the jingoes, wants to preserve: 3 And Canadian representatives in the United Nations defends this racist! : The people of the British Com- monwealth cannot longer con- done this crime. The “white su- premacy” of the Smuts ruling class must be broken. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 11