Sm,—Liberal-minded men, who are becoming increasingly unhappy at the sad
situation in South Africa, will applaud the aims of the Capricorn Africa Society `to establish a society free from all racial discrimination [and] capable of enriching itself from the cultural heritage of all the races which com- pose it.'
It is therefore the more to be deplored that Colonel Stirling in his thoughtful article, 'To- gether in Africa,' in which he rightly stresses the danger of 'black racialism,' and more par- ticularly that you, sir, in your editorial, should have chosen to indulge in ungenerous com- ments on others who are equally alive to the same danger, and have been active to prevent it.
For example, Canon Collins when address- ing the African and Indian Conference in Johannesburg (not, it may be noticed 'talking safely from a far distance') had the moral courage to speak as follows: 'South Africans and Indians have, I fear, caught in a measure the racial disease. It is essential that you shall not institute one tyranny for another; and I beg you, who are the spearhead of the great movement for African freedom, to forswear hatred and all forms of violence, and to see to it that the Africa you build will be freed from all racialist theories and practices.' On his return from Africa Canon Collins reiterated the same theme at a public meeting in the Central Hall.
To support Africans in their assertion of just rights is surely not to encourage racialism, but to foster that justice, upon the recognition of which fruitful and co-operative inter-racial relationships finally depend. Talk of a 'Strydom-Collins axis' is as irresponsible as it is faintly ridiculous.—Yours faithfully, EDWARD CARPENTER
7 Little Cloister, Westminster, SW I
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