IFAIL to understand why your correspondent. Mr. Braine, ashould have written as he did (April 10) about my letter explaining the worldwide abhorrence of apartheid.
The misdeeds of the authorities in Sudan and Zanzibar towards some of their citizens horrify me every bit as much as they do Mr. Braine, and he would have been spared the trouble of reminding me at length of this state of affairs if he had read beyond the first two paragraphs of my letter. I would refer him to my statement that "the equivalent of several thousand Sharpevilles have occurred all over independent Africa and Asia."
Mr. Braine has one or two nice things to say about South Africa which I am sure no one would find fault with, but his letter demonstrates that it is only possible to "defend" the policy of separate development in that country by diverting attention to the atrocities committed by other regimes.
He coyly admits that he is anti-apartheid, but regards the anti-apartheid movement as a tool of Communism. If this is so and the baddies are actually monopolising this important work, could Mr. Braine be persuaded, I wonder, to step into the breach by launching his very own Christian antiapartheid crusade'?
Now that Mr. Braine is aware that there are many points on which we both enjoy some measure of agreement, I hope he will see fit to include me within touching range of his 'disinfected bargea)ol e' which, so his letter would have u.s believe, he wields with even more circumspection on the subject of Africa than his pen.
Cyril Myerseough London, S.E.3.
MICHAEL FURTADO claims (March 27) that mortality among black South Africans is greater than elsewhere in Africa, and his source is Life of March 16.
While statistics show a far greater life expectancy for Asiatics in South Africa than for Indian Indians. there are no such praise figures for Negroes there, or in most other countries. However, even the anti-apartheid fanatics do not question that living standards for the Negroes are far superior in South Africa.
There are almost as many hospital beds per head for nonwhites there as for the United States as a whole. Literacy among the young Bantu is almost universal, while it is the exception elsewhere.
We have all read of the massacres and expulsions by the million in the Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Zanzibar, etc. It is virtually certain that the end of white rule in South Africa will mean the same fate for six million whites. Asiatics and coloureds, and many Bantu besides. Can Archbishop Roberts, and Messrs. Furtado and Myerscough explain how any Christian can work for such an end?
G. J. A. Stern
London, N.6.