Basic HTML Version
PAGE 12
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 19, 1985
ments have almost shaken the beliefs of some journalists in the desirabil
ity of a "revolution of the masses."
One of the most astute journalists today is Peregrine Worsthorne, who
writes for the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH in Britain. He recently took a trip across
South Africa. Here are excerpts of an account he wrote in his newspaper's
April 7 edition, wherein he drew a parallel between the Afrikaners and the
Americans as they encountered the natives in their midst.
It has always seemed to me that the achievements of the Dutch
Puritans who arrived at the Cape 300 years ago are quite as re
markable in their way as those of the English Puritans who ar
rived at about the same time in North America, the only differ
ence being, of course, that while the latter, in effect, solved
their race problem by virtually exterminating the Indians--or
practising separate development in reserves from very early on-
the former came round to cope with their native problem very be
latedly--in 1948 when the Nationalists came to power••••
Nobody today, needless to say, thinks that the world would be a
better place if the Red Indians were to be restored to power in
North America. Such a restoration would obviously be an unthink
ably perverse interference with the course of progress. Scarcely
less retrogressive, in my view--in the light of what is happening
in the rest of Africa--is the idea that black power should be re
stored over South Africa.
Is there any way out of this dilemma? One must desperately hope
so, because a race war in South Africa would split Western public
opinion more than any other international event since the Spanish
Civil War. However much Western Governments might not want to
get involved, their peoples would rush in to take sides.
Mr. Worsthorne made some very interesting--and frank--observations on the
dilemmas facing South African whites, especially the Afrikaners, in his
follow-up diary-style account in the April 14 issue of the SUNDAY TELE
GRAPH, entitled: "Botha's Warning to the West."
TUESDAY: •••at a brei (barbecue) given on a farm just outside Port
Elizabeth, I mee�senior academic from the university--a member
of the Broederbond [the semi-secret "bond of brothers" leadership
circle].... He gives me a lecture. "The choice for the whites
remains 'rule or be ruled.' So it is for the blacks. There can
be no power-sharing, any more than there could have been power
sharing between Cortez and the Aztecs. If the whites talk about
power-sharing now, as some of them do, alas, that can only mean
that they are becoming resigned to the role of the conquered na
tion."•••
If the rest of the white world wanted to put an end to apartheid,
then it in turn would have to conquer white South Africa, since
the blacks on their own certainly would never be able to do so,
unless President Botha turned out to be a traitor in disguise, as
President de Gaulle had turned out to be in Algeria. In that
event, the Army might have to take over, in the name of true Afri
kanerdom••.•