THE SOUTH AFRICAN FOUNDATION S1R,—The formation of the South African
Founda- tion has been reported in your columns. This Founda- tion professes a concern to.establish a good name for South Africa. It will seek, on a projected half a million per annum budget, to show that white South Africa has promoted the material welfare of the African and is a suitable outlet for European and American investment.
The Foundation is sponsored by twenty-three white South African leaders and the American platinum king. Mr. Charles Engelhard. Your readers will, I am sure, concede these men their sincerity; they will, I t..mst, equally concede their vested interests. Their chairiffan claims that 'the calibre and quality of these men are a complete guarantee of its independence and good will.' The Union's economy is still rela- tively small. These sponsors sit on the boards of over 300 companies, representing thousands of millions of invested capital. They number among them dominant figures in four of the six mining houses which control the country's gold, coal, diamond, uranium and platinum industries. They include the chairman of the most extensive retail distributive organisation, the biggest trust group, the most in- fluential insurance company, the largest circulation white newspaper, the all-powerful newsagents, an international tobacco and drink concern, vast heavy engineering industries, etc.
The Foundation's sponsors are, I submit, sir, the men who have 'had it good.' The reward for thes men's enterprise must be the tens of millions of their personal fortunes. But the majority of South Africans do not share their belief that all is well in a country where basic human rights are denied the majority, where a minority government enshrines man's in- humanity to man.—Yours faithfully, H. V. CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY Vierville Farm, PO Vergville, Natal
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