Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
News of the day
In Lieut Cameron’s “Sketch of a Journey Across Africa”, the writer says one of the most striking peculiarities of the women of Kasongo is the custom they have of piercing the upper lip, and in the hole inserting an oval stone, or piece of wood, or bone, which they keep on increasing in size till it sometimes, in the lesser and greater diameters, attains to 1.5 by 1.25 inches. This sticks out in front and gives the wearer the appearance of having a bill like a duck when seen in profile, and prevents her from speaking plainly. Franchise question, the men who are now agitating to reverse the decision of the Colony made no sign. It is matter of common consent that the opposition in Parliament to the passing of the measure was of the hollowest character imaginable. Public men who had always passed, and justly so, as true friends of the natives, counselled their fellow members to consent to the measure. No special representation was made to Parliament as to the claims of the Malay community. We are content to take the case as it stands in the Bill. Any respectable Malay can qualify himself for the franchise even without falling back upon that clause in the Bill which reserves to all men, black or white, who are now registered, their existing rights for the term of their natural lives. The Frenchman, M. Paul Bleriot, crossed the English Channel in his aeroplane of the monoplane type this morning. He had been in readiness for the attempt for some days, and seeing the conditions were favourable, started at 4.30 and landed at Dover. Prior to heading for England, he tested his aeroplane and finding it answered splendidly, notified the destroyer, which was waiting at Calais, that he was about to make the attempt. The destroyer at once steamed out, but M. Bleriot, who was travelling at a speed of about 40 miles an hour and at a height of from 50 to 80 metres, swiftly passed out of sight of those aboard. M. Bleriot crossed the Channel in 25 minutes. An unusual wedding has taken place at Lucknow, where an Australian actress, Miss Elsie Forrest, married the Maharajah of Tikari. Eastern rites were observed during the ceremony, and the bride was clad in a gorgeous gold-bespangled costume of pale blue with heavy bangles on her bare arms. The ceremony was followed by a sumptuous banquet, carried out in Oriental style. “No European minority can maintain its racial purity unless there are social colour bars,” Mr Eric Louw, Minister of Economic Affairs, said at a meeting at Beaufort West last night. “What is going to be the position of the small White minority in the year 2052, when the landing of Jan van Riebeeck should again be celebrated? Will the White man still be in the position he is in today?” He said it was “laid down by the Voortrekkers and by the British settlers 100 years ago that there should be a clear social dividing line between Whites and non-Whites”. The policy of apartheid was the only way in which the position of the White man could be maintained, politically as well as socially. Call me Mr. Mayor, Mrs. Joyce Newton Thompson said with a smile today after she had been chosen as Cape Town’s 45th – first woman – Mayor. Mrs. Thompson, widow of a Supreme Court judge and a member of a family prominent in English local politics, has been a councillor for eight years. Two of her three sons have played rugby for England. One lives in England and the other, Mr. J. O. Newton Thompson, is the United Party candidate at Bellville in the forthcoming provincial elections. Her third son was killed in World War II. The Minister of Police and of Justice, Mr. J. T. Kruger, announced here today that Security Police had arrested in South Africa the well-known Afrikaans writer Breyten Breytenbach, who has been living for some years in Paris. The Minister said a person had entered South Africa on August 1 under the name of Christiaan Galaska and his activities had been such as to arouse the interest of the security police. Galaska had purported to be a Frenchman, speaking English with a heavy accent and unable to speak Afrikaans. After investigation, his identity as Breytenbach was confirmed. Breytenbach (34) is an outspoken critic of South Africa’s racial laws. His wife, Yolande (31), is the daughter of a former Vietnamese vice-president. He has lived in voluntary exile in Paris since 1963 when he married Yolande, because the South African Government had refused her an entry permit as she was regarded as non-White in terms of the Mixed Marriages Act.