Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Friday, October 27, 1922. Horse events, funerals, savings certificates. And the March on Rome begins.

Today In Wyoming's History: October 271922  The Schwartz Brothers Haberdashers store opened in Cheyenne.   Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

A military horse show took place in Washington, D.C. on this day in 1922.

Billy Mitchell was one of the competitors.





 Elsewhere, a military funeral was also conducted.




Andrew Mellon was issuing new Treasury saving certificates.


Southern Rhodesia, which later became Rhodesia, and which is now Zimbabwe, held a referendum on joining South Africa.  Voters rejected the proposal.

Italian Fascists took possession of cities around Italy as the March on Rome began.  The mach was a mass demonstration that was also a slow rolling coup in progress intended, ultimately, to put so much pressure on the Italian government that it would fall, and the Fascists take control of the government.  It would succeed in that aim.

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Wednesday December 28, 1921. The Raid.

A couple of items from our companion blog, Today In Wyoming's History for December 28

1921  A large prohibition  raid occurred in Rock Springs.

Rock Springs had a large Eastern European and Southern European immigrant and first generation population that had never favored prohibition.  As a result, the town predictably became a bootlegging center in Wyoming, leading to a huge evening raid on this day in 1921.

1921  USS Laramie commissioned.

She was a fleet oiler, survived being torpedoed in the Atlantic in 1942, and was decommissioned in 1945.


The Rand Rebellion, a gold miners strike, commenced in South Africa.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Sunday, December 14, 1941. Duration plus six months.


The US Armed Forces extended enlistments to the classic "duration plus six months".  See:

Today in World War II History—December 14, 1941

A Coast Guard vessel made a depth charge run near Pearl Harbor, reporting an attack on a Japanese submarine that almost certainly was not there. 

0940, 14 December, 1941. Dropped five charges on an excellent contact with range closing fast from dead ahead. This was the best contact made, solid and definite and all hands were convinced that results would be obtained, but no visible evidence of damage to submarine was found. A careful search of vicinity failed to re-establish contact

B17s were used to bomb Japanese landing sites in the Philippines.  Lt. Wheless, a B17 pilot, would win the Distinguished Flying Cross for completing his mission in a heavily shot up and heavily attacked B17 that day.  Wheless would survive the war and go on to retire from the Air Force in 1968.

B17s would be withdrawn from the Philippines the following day.

The Independent State of Croatia, an Axis puppet state, declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Bears beat the Green Bay Packers for the Western Division title.

Dr. Alfred Bitini Xuma, President of the African National Congress, issued an address to South Africa.  It stated:

14 December 1941 
Fellow Countrymen,
If you may ever need comfort, courage and inspiration for the difficult yet manly task I am going to urge you to assume, I advise you to pin on the walls of your hearts the wise words of our Prime Minister, the Right Hon­ourable Field-Marshal J.C. Smuts who said recently, "Do not mind being called agitators. Let them call you any names they like but get on with the job and see that matters that vitally require attention. Native Health, Native Food, the treatment of Native Children and all those cognate questions that are basic to the Welfare of South Africa are attended to."
In the founding of the African National Congress in 1912, African leaders of that day displayed a great vision and laid a broad and deep foundation upon which to build the superstructure for African freedom and liberty in the land of their forefathers. They proclaimed through the organization they set up and the efforts they made, that, only through unity and concerted action of all leaders from our various races and classes may we hope to achieve our freedom and obtain justice and a fair play in South Africa. They made sacrifices and suffered privations in the cause of African freedom. Some went to gaol and became unpopular with power and influence but remained loyal and true to the cause of their people. Thus they were the architects of our salvation. Thus they pointed the way for us. They showed that freedom is precious and a heavy price must be paid to obtain it.
With our State Native Policy and the racial attitude in general, to serve your people honestly and sincerely; to take an uncompromising stand on their behalf, is to become unpopular in certain high and influential quarters.
You and I are inheritors of these great traditions. We are debtors to their fine examples. We are called upon to copy their fine example of sacrifice. We are urged not only to build upon the foundation they laid but also to improve and modernise the plan of their structure. To do this it requires the best African brains, and I believe we have them at this Conference. It calls for the greatest effort and sacrifice from every man and woman of our race. It means for all of us wherever we are and whoever we are to do our duty. Congress claims us. Congress demands our best service for our people.
Since Congress was founded and made its initial spectacular success it has experienced periods of inactivity because you and I thought and believed that organizations led by non-Africans were more dignified than African organizations and thus we abandoned our organizations and surrendered our leadership to others. We, especially the intellectuals, so-called, have been more loyal to this new leadership. We are better trained than the founders of Congress but we do not seem willing to think and act for ourselves as did these old stalwarts.
To-day you and I, the better trained we are, seem more disposed to work under orders and direction of others against and away from African organizations. Someone said to me one day, with some degree of truth, "We uneducated Africans feel that the educated African is lost to us. He is afraid to identify himself with his own people. When crisis .arises, he is either silent or joins the forces against his own people. We do not know whether the education you get puts fear in you." I was dumbfounded; but was somewhat ashamed because you and I, outside our jobs for which we are paid, have not done the best we can to assist our people. Fellow Countrymen, this is a challenge. Shall we not pick up the gauntlet? South Africa, white and black, needs us. We must pull our full weight; we must make our real contribution to the building and the progress of South Africa to the full benefit, mutual helpfulness and happiness of all sections, white and black.
Let us stand for, and with, our people as long, as we are in the right.
Our position and place is what it is in South Africa and will remain what it is until you and I realise that no race can save another. Each people must rise through the efforts and leadership of its own members. Others can and must help. In spite of this I am very much encouraged to find that during the past year Congress has received the support and co-operation of all African groups and organizations. The representations that Congress made before Government Commissions have been supported and adopted by most responsible groups. We are, therefore, proud and happy at the evidence of this unity which means strength and hope for our people.
It will not be amiss here to remind you of the aims and objects of the Congress as enunciated by its founders.... Thus the African National Congress is the mouthpiece of the African people of the Union of South Africa. All its efforts are and must be concentrated upon raising the status of the African people from their semi-serfdom to citizenship. To work for this end and to achieve it, the leaders of Congress cannot hope to be popular with any of those who would exclude the African from citizenship rights.
We cannot go on blindly and hope to achieve our goal. We must have a plan; we must have a programme of action.
REPRESENTATION
In a democratic country all members of the State must be part of the policy moulding machinery. They must have a voice and a vote in the affairs of the State. However, in South Africa the African has no vote and, therefore, no voice in South African affairs. He has ingeniously been disfranchised and put in differentiated pseudo-franchise which disfranchise the most qualified people under any fair, just, and equitable system of franchise. Under the Representation of Natives` Act, the individual educated person is victimised. In rural areas only the chiefs under the influence of the Native Commissioners are voters. In urban areas, the Advisory Boards, some under the influence of the Superintendents are voters. The professional man, the teacher, the minister, the property owner outside locations, have no vote, and, therefore, cannot choose a representative either to the Native Representative Council, to the House of Assembly, or to the Senate except in the Cape Province.
In a country in which two-million Europeans are represented in Municipal Councils, Provincial Councils besides 150 members in the House of Assembly and 40 in the Senate, there are only three members in the House of Assembly and 4 Senators to represent six to eight million Africans. There are no members in the House of Assembly to represent Africans in the Free State, Transvaal and Natal. The Transvaal and the Free State on the one hand and Natal on the other are represented by one Senator respectively. In the Native Representative Council there are 12 members elected by Chiefs in Rural Areas and by Advisory Boards in Urban Areas, and 4 members nominated by the Government-with 5 Chief Native Commissioners and the Chairman representing the Government. The Council has only advisory functions and no legislative power. The Representation of Natives` Act not only gives inadequate representation but also excludes the best qualified Africans from being voters. It may justly be called the Mis-Representation of Natives` Act.
We must work for:-
·         Adequate representations and right of franchise for Africans.
·         Participation of Africans, as voters and citizens, in the building of a Union Policy acceptable to all sections including the African.
·         Representation of Africans in all Government chambers and Government departments.
LAND
The fundamental basis of all wealth and power is the ownership and acquisition of freehold title to land. From land, we derive our existence. We derive our wealth in minerals, food, and other essentials. On land we build our homes. Without land we cannot exist. To all men of whatever race or colour land, therefore, is essential for their wealth, prosperity, and health. Without land-rights any race will be doomed to poverty, destitution, ill-health and lack of all life`s essentials. In South Africa all our legislation aims at depriving the African of all right and title to land, in both rural and urban areas. He is made a perpetual and eternal tenant of the State and Municipalities so that he may forever be dependent for existence and wages upon Europeans who are, alone, entitled to get as much land as they can use and even more than what they can use but may hold it for future speculation while Africans are landless, homeless, destitute, and starving.
The over-crowding of the reserves is no accident. Generations of young men come of age in many of these areas but no land is available for their occupation so that tens of thousands of-them are squatting on their fathers` limited areas. As many as 2 to 4 families squat on such little plots in surveyed areas.
Much of this over-crowding of stock we hear so much about is a mis­representation of the position. Few people have as many as 5 head of cattle or more. The problem is over-population due to limited land space. The solution is not limitation of stock as it is often officially urged even though no one would object to the improvement of the quality of stock. The solution will be the opening up of more land for occupation by Africans through all forms of tenure possible for them, that is, freehold, lease-hold, and rental, as the case may be.
The provisions of the Natives` Land Act (1913) and the Natives` Land Trust Act Amendment (1936) do not tend to solve the land problem in the rural areas. They tend to aggravate and confuse the situation. The land is available to be held communally under restricted conditions and rent must be paid in perpetuity. The land, under the conditions of the Land and Trust Act is bought at highly inflated prices and thereby increases the rentals. These poor people must carry a heavy financial burden in rents.
Under this Act no land is available for sale to individuals or groups of Africans who wish to buy. Further, no facilities are available to them, such as the Land Bank to assist them to acquire or improve their land. The whole land policy has been of benefit to European farmers who have made unheard of profits for the sale of farms in their names without any real improvements having been effected by them.
In fact, the over-crowding of the reserves, the lack of facilities to encourage the acquisition of freehold title by Africans are not an accident or an insoluble problem. They are part of a studied land policy which aims at providing an uninterrupted flow of cheaply paid labour and an absence of independent self-sufficient African farmers who would be under no European control.
In urban areas, under the Urban Areas Act, 1923, provisions are only made for accommodation of those Africans who are potential labourers for Europeans. These Africans must be accommodated in locations or hostels. Even though the idea of Native villages is provided for under the Act, it has not been encouraged in practice. No provision is made for the acquisition of freehold titles by Africans generally except in townships that were allowed before the Act came into force. Here, also, over-crowding exists because areas available to Africans and Non-Europeans in general are very limited and, therefore, become slums.
In all this land policy the worst and most dangerous clause is the restriction that provides that no Native may buy land from a non-Native except with the Governor-General`s approval to the transaction. The provision is universally acceptable in government and European quarters because the native generally speaking has no land to sell. This ensures that there is little chance for Africans securing more land and therefore, independence.
Congress must, therefore, work and negotiate for:-
·         Adequate land for Africans and for Africans to acquire freehold title to land in rural and urban areas.
·         The right of Africans to secure freehold titles to land individually or collectively or as syndicates inside or outside released areas.
·         Right of Africans to purchase land from any seller anywhere in rural and urban areas.
·         Land Bank facilities to assist African farmers to purchase land to improve it.
Every effort must be made, now, during the war, to get adequate land for Africans as over-crowding and starvation are undermining the health and physique of our people for generations to come. The present conditions of land occupation and available land for Africans unfit them physically, mentally and even morally for survival.
ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL WELFARE
The African is the worker of South Africa. However, because of his lack of political power and because of the existence of many statutory restrictions against him such as the Pass Laws, the Natives Service Contract Act, the Masters and Servants Act, the Natives` Labour Regulations, the African finds himself debarred from benefits of certain labour awards. For instance, the Pass Laws restrict his freedom of movement, limit his bargaining power, expose him to exploitation by a certain type of employer and exclude him from enjoying benefits to be derived from the Industrial Conciliation Act. The African is paid wages far below the cost of living.
He is debarred from skilled trades. He is a pawn between the white worker and the employer. He is forced to live below the bread line. Besides African wages are further depressed by the uneconomic system of recruiting and importation of African labour which exempts the mines from the operation of economic and industrial laws, supply and demand so far as Africans are concerned. He is allowed to trade on sufferance and under great restrictions. The African is a great producer and consumer of goods. He should, therefore, be allowed to trade freely according to his means and ability to help raise his economic status.
To achieve our ends in this direction, Congress must work for:
·         Removal of industrial and commercial restrictions against the African.
·         Living wage and better working conditions.
·         Right of all classes of African workers to organise into Trade Unions.
·         Recognition and Registration of African Trade Unions under African leadership by the Union Labour Department with all the rights, privileges and immunities appertaining to such organizations under the Industrial Conciliation Act.
·         Right of Africans to learn skilled trades and engage in them.
·         Trading rights for Africans anywhere.
·         Abolition of Pass Laws, Natives` Service Contract Act, The Masters` and Servants` Act, and other Special Disabilities.
·         Abolition of Recruiting and Importation of African labour from outside the Union.
All of us, whatever our status or calling, must join hands with all other classes in this fight for existence.
POLICE, CIVIC GUARDS AND THE AFRICAN
Recently the African has suffered severely at the hands of the police. During police raids not only assaults on Africans have taken place but, in the course of such raids, Africans have been actually shot dead. The situation in cities like Johannesburg has been aggravated by the appearance, as special constables, of the Civic Guards. They are more worry and a greater horror in the already harassed life of the African. Some of them do not seem to use much judgment in carrying out their duties. They seem to have no regard either to time, circumstances or persons.
Some of them search all and sundry. Any questions or reluctance on the part of the African often leads to man-handling of the victim. These high-handed methods of both the police and the "civic guards" do not tend to arouse a spirit of good race relations. One feels that there are many people under these circumstances who are given authority over the African without the necessary discipline and training for the task. The Pass Laws and Police Raids in general must be abolished in justice to the African and as a measure of relief to him.
Those who want to fight should go to the various battlefronts instead of attacking defenceless and unarmed Africans.
SOCIAL WELFARE
Africans in South Africa are the worst paid and consequently the poorest section of the community. Generally speaking they have no margin from their earnings to set aside for a rainy day; consequently, during old age, disablement and non-employment they find themselves with nothing with which to support themselves. As a group Africans are more in need of benefits from the Social Welfare Departments than any other section in South Africa. The Africans, therefore, should be eligible to receive all benefits from Social Welfare Departments.
It should be the task of the African National Congress to work for:-
·         Old age pensions for Africans.
·         Disability and Disablement pensions.
·         Extensions of provisions of the Children`s Act to meet social re­quirements of destitute African children-adequate maintenance grants.
HEALTH REQUIREMENTS
Africans in South Africa have the highest Infant Mortality rate, highest mortality and morbidity rates, than any section. The causes are not racial but economic. The people are poverty stricken with low wages, lack of adequate food, semi-starvation, bad housing and therefore, low resistance to disease and consequent ill-health and premature death. Adequate hospital accommodation is desirable but hospital accommodation required can be reduced if the people are paid good wages to relieve them from poverty in order to buy their health through sufficient food, good housing and other amenities.
We must work for:-
·         Adequate well-equipped and adequately staffed hospitals-General and Special.
·         Full extension of public health and preventative health measures to Africans.
·         The training of Africans in medicine, surgery and public health and cognate subjects, training of health visitors, health inspectors and nurses, and their eligibility for public employment on basis of ability and training and recognised professional rates and conditions.
EDUCATION OF THE AFRICAN
Man is not born with well-developed instincts like most animals. Unlike other animals he requires a long period of care and education. He must be taught.
Under the present conditions Native Education is not State-Controlled. It is only State-Aided. The missionaries establish the schools and provide the buildings. The Government through the Provincial Education Departments, pays the teachers` salaries. Native Education is at present financed from a block grant made up of £340,000 from the general revenue and the rest a sum voted from revenue accruing from Native Taxation under the Native Taxation and Development Act, 1925.
Only about one-third of the African children of school-going age are accom­modated in these schools which are always overcrowded and under-staffed.
The African teachers are the most overworked and paid the deplorable salary of £4.10.0dto £ 5.19.Od a month.
So far there has never been enough funds to meet the requirements of even the one-third of school population now accommodated in schools. As a consequence many of our children are growing wild without an opportunity of school education and discipline.
They get their education on the streets and back-alleys from where they graduate into reformatories and finally gaols and many people wonder why there is a high and increasing rate of African Juvenile Delinquency. The Government must be asked for adequate funds but it is difficult to expect the Government to distribute lavishly public funds over a system of education over which they have no control. How can we expect them to satisfy the numerous competing mission groups?
We thank the missionaries for pioneering in, and laying the foundation of African Education. However, time and circumstances have changed.
Congress, therefore, urges for:-
·         Free Public School system of education controlled by the Government through the various Provincial Education Departments.
·         Provision of School Buildings and equipment by the State.
·         Financing of Native Education on a per caput basis from the General Revenue based on the number of children of school-going age.
·         Higher salaries for the African Teacher with Civil Service Status and pension rights compatible with the requirements of their profession under modem conditions.
·         Unlimited opportunities for scholastic education and technical training for employment in Civil Service and skilled trades without colour or racial restrictions.
·         Formation of school boards with direct representations of Africans on such boards.
·         Appointment of qualified Africans into any post in African educational institutions.
ADMINISTRATION
Almost all Departments of State deal with African Affairs. In all these departments the candidates for the graded positions have to undergo some training and apprenticeship. Africans contribute directly and indirectly for the upkeep of these departments. We welcome the recent move by the Native Affairs Department for the appointment of Africans to certain senior posts. We urge the training of Africans and the employment of them generally in all Civil Service and Public Service other than Native Affairs. Africans must be employed in the administration of the country like others in increasing numbers and with adequate pay and pensions.
DISABILITIES UNDER THE NATIVE ADMINISTRATION ACT
I now come to a question that affects our people vitally especially in rural areas. It affects Chiefs and people alike. I refer to the operation of the Native Administration Act. Under this Act the Governor General who in this case, is the Native Affairs, has absolute dictatorial powers over our people. He may remove tribes, appoint and depose chiefs at will if it is thought of course by some Native Commissioner that such action is in the interest of good government whatever that may mean. He may deport a member or members of the tribe. Such member or members of the tribe may not be tried before a Court of Law. It is suggested that such powers are derived from African law and custom and the Governor-General exercises them as "Supreme Chief of the Africans in the Orange Free State, Transvaal and Natal."
In his high office as the Viceroy we bow to the Governor-General; but on the basis of African law and custom he cannot be recognized as Supreme Chief of the African. There can be no Supreme Chief in Native law and custom who acts without the advice of other chiefs; who does not express the wish and will of the people. The most controlled person in African society is the chief. He is controlled by his family, his councillors, headmen and sub-chiefs and finally by the people. The people express their will first and the Chief speaks it out for them. He is their mouthpiece.
This distortion of Native Law and Custom was copied by Europeans from the rule of Great Chaka. He was a dictator and a despot. He was not deposed because there is no deposition in African custom. He went the way such un­controlled Chiefs go in African society. He had his head cut off.
There is no deportation of members of the tribe. If a man is unruly, the Chief "eats him up", that is, fines him until he runs across the border by night. This deportation clause does not even recognise the rule of law in English law, namely, that an accused person cannot suffer penalty without trial. The Native Administration Act is tyranny invoked in the name of customary law. We must fight for the revision of this abuse and misrepresentation of African customs.
NOMINATIONS UNDER REPRESENTATION OF NATIVES` ACT
I take up now a question that interests all of us but which is, nevertheless, not essential. I refer to the nomination of candidates under the Representation of Natives` Act. Sometime ago the Provinces received a letter from the Secretary-General asking for nominations under this Act. I have since, however, studied the question and its implications in relation to our organisation and have come to the conclusion that for the present, Congress must not sponsor any candidates either nationally or provincially. Any nominations, therefore, made in any Pro­vince will be made by qualified voters in that Province and not by the Provincial Congresses. This, however, does not preclude any voters, as such, exercising their choice; but such nominee or nominees are not endorsed by Congress either nationally or provincially. To Congress we must be loyal and true. For Congress, we must forget any personal or sectional interests or gain. We must put the cause and the interests of the people before any expediency.
My ruling is in the interests of the Congress and all genuine supporters and well-wishers of this organization will abide by it. To be true leaders, we must put the interests and welfare of our people above our own.
THE AFRICAN AND MILITARY SERVICE
The last point I would like to discuss with you is the problem of military service and the African in the Union of South Africa.
We are thrilled at the exploits of African forces from other parts of Africa. West Africans and the King`s African Rifles from Central Africa have distinguished themselves in the campaign against Fascist Italy. We are proud of their record in the fight to destroy the Italian African Empire. We learn that 90,000 of them took part in this campaign that is now history. West Africans are flying in Great Britain. Some have been commissioned in the Royal Air Force. South Africa and South Africans, black and white are safer to-day because these black African soldiers with their white comrades at-arms have barred the way.
Our own people have volunteered to serve King and country anywhere and in anyway; but our Government has restricted their service to manual labour. Their pay has been deplorably low. In fact, that one shilling and sixpence a day for unmarried African soldiers is just six-pence more than the allowance which, I understand, was given to internees, enemies of the State, whose dependents were receiving £2.10.0 to £ 5.0.0 allowance in addition, and that, for working against the Government. Our African soldiers in the Union unlike Coloureds and Indians cannot rise higher than the position of Sergeant and it seems that there have been attempts to differentiate and humiliate them further in certain directions. They are not receiving the extra shilling a day allowed for doing extra work such as clerical work, training transport drivers, and so on. There is also the problem of the disabled soldier and the discharged soldier. All these matters tend to discourage the enthusiasm of our people to join and put African leaders in a most embarrassing position.
While it is our desire to see our people armed and fighting like other soldiers, Lord Gort`s memoirs, recently published, seem to indicate that if the training of Africans for active service was begun now it may not be until 1943 before they are fit to take their part safely and efficiently in a campaign under modern war conditions.
It would be a sign of irresponsibility on my part to discuss publicly all the causes of reluctance of the African to join. I feel, therefore, without disclosing some of the more delicate questions, that Congress must take steps for representations to be made to the Right Honourable the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence-Field Marshal J. C. Smuts and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Native Affairs-Colonel Deneys Reitz, on these questions of ARMY SERVICE, REPRESENTATION, LAND, EDUCATION, WAGES AND RECOGNITION AND REGISTRATION OF TRADE UNIONS, THE NA­TIVE ADMINISTRATION ACT AND THE PASS LAWS.
Our actions of loyalty do not mean contentment and happiness on our part. We are very much dissatisfied with the lot and status of our people. We want these improved immediately. But we realise that if our present State is taken over by a foreign nation, there will be new problems. Our condition may or may not be worse. We would rather fight for, and correct, the evils of our present State and incorporate in her legislation and administration all that is best for the advancement and happiness of our common humanity.
A question may arise in the minds of some of us whether these problems of LAND, REPRESENTATION, EDUCATION, WAGES AND PASS LAWS ETC. should not wait until after the war. I reply NO! Emphatically NO! These are urgent matters clammering for immediate solution. They are essential, now for the health, well-being, and happiness of the African people as for other sections. South Africa is fighting for freedom, for democracy, for Christianity, and for human decency, and these must be enjoyed by all who will, irrespective of race, creed or colour. At home, Africans have given from their meagre earnings, from their dire poverty, more than their proportionate share towards the various war funds. As in the past when king and country were at war, the Africans` loyalty now is not and never has been excelled by any section in South Africa, white or black, notwithstanding their hope-destroying disabilities under our State policy and practice. Africans are no fairweather loyalists or democrats.
They have not anywhere committed acts of sabotage against the State. They have volunteered to serve anywhere and in anyway, so that, to-day, European boys and African boys, from South Africa, are falling together on the same battleground. In Sidi Rezek, Lybia, enemy bullets made no distinction on basis of colour or duties being performed. White men and black men suffered the same death, sustained the same wounds and others were taken prisoners. African men, even as stretcher bearers, died attempt­ing to save lives of wounded European compatriots at the battle line. These Africans, whatever service they are assigned to do, are doing a man`s job. They are protecting white and black women in South Africa, and all those men who either are unfit for service, those who are exempted from service, or those who expect freedom to be a gift from somewhere not worth fighting for or dying for.
African boys are dying in defence of freedom, democracy, Christianity and human decency in South Africa. They are making this supreme sacrifice so that we, their Kith and Kin, may enjoy these privileges as well. They hope that we, at the home front, will defend their inherent rights and see that full justice is done to their wives and dependents so that they will not have died in vain. South Africa must play the game with the Africans now. If she gives them their legitimate right of citizenship thus more to fight for, she will get the Africans` quota for service without recruiting.
As long as these grave disabilities and glaring inconsistencies exist and are not adjusted or settled, they will continue to kill, disable, and handicap more Africans and bring more unhappiness to as many more African families than the deaths and disablement that this war will bring to South Africa. This is the battle of the home front. It must be fought and won now before the war is over as a basis for real peace.
In the past South Africa has legislated and governed for the benefits of the Europeans, the privileged group and upper cast of South Africa. Because she claims to be fighting for the ideals we have just mentioned, and also in memory of, and as a monument to, the lives of black boys who are falling and will fall in various battle fronts in her defence. South Africa must begin now to legislate for the welfare and benefit of all South Africans irrespective of race, creed or colour but must be based on human worth. Thus and thus only may South Africa win peace.
This is Congress Policy. This is the African`s charter in South Africa. This is the New Order for which he is dying up North, for which he must live and work. It can only be achieved through hard work on our part, through serious thinking, careful planning, great personal sacrifices and self-denial on the part of all people, particularly Africans who would like to see the African given an opportunity to develop and use without let or hindrance, his God-given gifts and talents.
In conclusion, in the words quoted recently by our Prime Minister, Field Marshall J. C. Smuts, "I challenge you and all men of vision and goodwill of whatever race or colour to abandon the policies of the past for faith, for hope, for trust in each other. Take each others` hand and move forward to the destiny which is yours."
Thus South Africa may well adopt our Congress motto- "RIGHT NOT MIGHT. FREEDOM NOT SERFDOM."

The doctor was the president of the ANC at the time and was the first black physician in South Africa.

Monday, December 13, 2021

Saturday December 13, 1941. The Niihau Incident.

The Niihau Incident, in which a Japanese pilot on Niihau secured the assistance of Japanese residents of that island to secure his release from captivity, and which saw a conflict develop between native Hawaiians and resident Japanese, came to an end when the pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi (西開地 重徳) was killed and the man aiding him killed himself.


The incident became significant in bringing the US Government to internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans.  

Niihau was inhabited primarily by native Hawaiians who spoke the language, and owned by a white family that generally precluded access to it to outsiders.  It had three Japanese residents, however, and all three helped 西開地 重徳 in his efforts after he crashed landed on the island.  

The incident had seen Hawila Kalehano, a native Hawaiian, disarm the Japanese pilot as he was concerned about the surprising event, but he otherwise treated him well.  The Hawaiians sent for Ishimatsu Shintani who was marred to a Hawaiian so he could translate.  Shintani didn't want to perform the task and only briefly spoke to the pilot. Thereafter, the Hawaiians sent for Yoshio Harada who had been born in Hawaii.  Harada was informed by Nishikaichi of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The Harada's, husband and wife, decided to aid the pilot in recovering his papers and escaping.

That night the Hawaiians learned of the attack on a battery power radio.  They then confronted the pilot, and it was decided to hold the pilot and turn him over to the islands' owner, who was due to arrive the next day from Kaua'i.  The owner, Aylmer Robinson, did not arrive, however, as the military had stopped boat traffic after the attack.  The pilot was therefore put under guard in the Harada's house.  

On December 12 Shintani attempted to buy the pilot's papers but failed.  On the same day the Harada's and Nishikaichi attacked their guards and armed themselves, taking a hostage.  They confronted Kaleohano who ran and was shot at.  During the night, the escaped pilot and confederates torched the Japanese airplane.

During the night they took additional hostages but became aware that they were being deceived by the Hawaiians and that it was likely that they were going for help.  Ultimately a struggle developed in which the pilot shot one of the Hawaiians three times, but was nonetheless overpowered and had his throat slit.  Harada killed himself after the pilot was killed.  

Shintani returned to the island after the war, after spending the rest of it in an Internment Camp, and lived there the rest of his life.  Irene Harada was held as a prisoner until 1944.  She moved to Kaua'i and lived the rest of the war there, stating in a 1992 interview that she felt sorry for the pilot and wanted to help him.  In an interesting twist, the Japanese government thanked her in later years for her efforts on behalf of the pilot, in spite of her resistance to their doing so.

Authorities, already distrustful of those of Japanese ancestry in the US, were shocked by how quickly all of the Japanese residents of the small island went over to aid the Japanese pilot which had a role in helping to convince the authority to intern the Japanese and Japanese Americans on the continental United States.  They were not interred on the Hawaiian islands where they made up 1/3d of the population, but it was felt that it was not economically possible to do so nor that they constituted a danger because of the islands isolation.

Pacific Aviation Museum: The Ni'ihau Zero Incident



Indeed, the incident remains problematic to the social history of World War Two as it does demonstrate that in at least some instances some Japanese and Japanese Americans retained sufficiently strong loyalties to Japan that it could in fact override loyalty to the United States.  That does not excuse internment, but it makes it less irrational that it is sometimes portrayed to be.  The US and Canada had a long problematic relationship with their Japanese residents as it was in which they both unfairly constantly suspected them of being hostile aliens and had often thought of them as a potential fifth column.  The incident gave a real world example of this actually occurring.

The desperate quality of the pilots actions remain curious.  The Japanese Navy had designated the island as one to land on in an emergency, as they believed it to be uninhabited.  But how anyone who landed there was to be rescued is a mystery.  It would have required either a fellow pilot to land there at the time, which was a possibility, and take the others on, or it would have required rescue by a plane designated to that task, which would have been unlikely to have been dispatched.  In this case, the pilot attempted to use the plan3's radio to radio for help, but was unsuccessful.

The Royal Navy sank three Italian cruisers off of Tunisia in the Battle of Cape Bon.

Hungary declared war on the United States.

The United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa declared war on Bulgaria.

Honduras declared war on Germany and Italy.

The Today In World War Two blog has some interesting items, including the destruction of American airpower in the Philippines.

Today in World War II History—December 13, 1941

A glacier collapse caused 4,000 to 6,000 deaths in Peru when it fell into a lake and caused a morraine landslide.

Monday, May 24, 2021

May 24, 1921. Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho, Bulhoek Massacre, and the Northern Irish vote.

Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston,  Idaho.  May 24, 1921.

Nothing stays the same, of course.

While I haven't been to Clarkson/Lewiston, I dare say its changed.  I'd take the 1921 variant over today's, almost certainly.

Slightly colorized version of the same photograph.

On this day in 1921 voters in Northern Ireland ovewhelmingly voted for unionist candidates.

In South Africa a 163 Xhosa followers of a Xhosa excommunicated lay Methodist minister were killed in what is known as the Bulhoek Massacre.  They were killed by heavily armed police in a battle whose beginning is confused.  The community was made of a group known as the Israelites who followed the beliefs of their founders apocalyptical predictions. 

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

The Wreck of the Birkenhead

On this day in 1852 the HMS Birkenhead struck rocks off the coast of South Africa and sunk in stormy seas. The ship had 634 passengers, most of whom were soldiers in the British Army from various units. As some of those units were cavalry, it also had a cargo of horses.

One hundred soldiers drowned in the initial collision, but the remainder made it to the deck. The ship, as was common for military transports of the time, also had a small number of women and children. When it was realized the vessel was lost, the order was given to place the women and children (seven women, thirteen children) in the lifeboats. The horses were then set loose into the sea in hopes they'd swim the two miles to shore. The soldiers were ordered to stand fast as the ship sank out of fear that if they swam for life boats, which was first proposed than countermanded, they would swamp the life boats. They remained nearly silent the entire time.

The women and children survived. 113 soldiers also did, some swimming two miles over 12 hours, some clinging to wreckage, and some to the floating hull where they were picked up the next day. Many of those who went into the sea were killed by sharks. Six Royal Marines and 54 sailors also survived. Eight horses successfully swam to shore.

I note this for no particular reason other than that this tragedy occurred on this day so long ago. The soldiers were on their way to a colonial war against the Xhosa, a British effort which wouldn't draw any admiration today. Be that as it may, the sacrifice they did make in their final hours is one that a person might wonder if men today would make, and it was really heroic.

Soldier an' Sailor Too, by Kipling. 
To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout;But to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew,An' they done it, the Jollies -- 'Er Majesty's Jollies -- soldier an' sailor too!Their work was done when it 'adn't begun; they was younger nor me an' you;Their choice it was plain between drownin' in 'eaps an' bein' mopped by the screw,So they stood an' was still to the Birken'ead drill, soldier an' sailor too

Saturday, February 1, 2020

February 1, 1920 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the South African Air Force formed.

On this day in 1920 the recently merged Royal North West Mounted Police and the Dominion Police Force officially became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Mountie of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, circa 1930s.

This is undoubtedly confusing for people who associate the Mounties, as they are called, with the 19th Century, but the RCMP celebrates its 100th anniversary today.

The confusion is no doubt created by the fact that the well known prior police force, whose troopers were also called Mounties, the North West Mounted Police, dated back to 1873. The NWMP was formed to patrol the Canadian West and adopted the famous scarlet color as the Indian population associated it with authority due to the British Army.  The NWMP came to ultimately wear a uniform that for all practical purposes is the one we associate with the RCMP today.

Troopers of the NWMP  at Fort Walsh, 1878 in early uniforms with British style "pill box" caps.

It was the NWMP that established the reputation of the Mounties for "always getting their man" and brave, risky, solitary action.  They also established the Mounties appearance, adopting, unofficially at first, the Stetson hat that still prominently features in the RCMP uniform.

Mountie of the North West Mounted Police in the Yukon, 1917. This Mountie is carrying a Ross rifle, formerly the rifle of the Canadian Army, and is riding a stock saddle. Stock saddles were the norm for Mounties for much of their mounted history.  His Stratchcona boots, adopted by Canadain volunteers during the Boer War and still used by the RCMP today, are also easily identifiable in the photo.

In later years the North West Mounted Police was renamed the Royal North West Mounted Police in 1904, bringing the name close to that of the RCMP. During the Boer War it contributed men to volunteer forces that served in South Africa and in 1918 it contributed two units directly to the Empire forces in Europe, and then in Russia, over the objection of the Canadian military which felt that there was no need for cavalry to be sent at that time.  The sending of Mounties in fact blurred their purpose somewhat as it caused a force which was military in organization but a police force to actually take on a military role for a time while also putting a strain on police functions in Canada itself, as the war had so depleted the number of men serving in the RNWMP.

Dawson, Yukon Territory.

While the North West Mounted Police covered the vast Canadian west, in the east the Canadian federal police force was the Dominion Police Force, which had been formed in 1868.  We hear a great deal less about it, no doubt because its role was less dramatic.  During World War One it was folded into the Canadian Army for a time. Following the war the decreased need for a force of the type of the North West Mounted Police and the increased need for a central Canadian police force caused the merger of the two, which officially became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on this day in 1920.

Photobucket
Royal Canadian Musical Ride at the Wyoming State Fair, 2012.

The RCMP has existed ever since, although its no longer a mounted service and its famous scarlet uniform is now only a dress uniform.  It's final existence in its original frontier form was waning even at the time of its creation. Even so, all Mounties were required to learn to ride until 1966, a fact which reflects Canada's vast wild nature.  At the same time, following its creation, it took on many of the same duties that the Federal Bureau of Investigation occupies in the United States while also retaining provincial policing duties, often by contract with local entities.

Purely coincidentally, today is also the date that marks the formation of the South African Air Force which holds the status as the world's second independent air force.  I.e., it was a service separate from the Army.  The Royal Air Force holds the status of being the world's first independent air force, acquiring that status on April 1, 1918.

Airco D.H.9, several of which were given by the United Kingdom to the Dominion of South Africa.

The date cold legitimately be debated as in reality it marks the date on which Col Pierre van Ryneveld was appointed the South African Director Air Service with the task of creating the South African Air Force.  South African had been given several military aircraft for the purpose of creating an air arm, and his task was to do that.  Interestingly, Van Ryneveld was not in South Africa at the time and had just been recalled from the UK to assume his new duties.  He returned at the controls of a Vickers Vimy, which he flew all the way from the UK with co-pilot Quintin Brand. Both Van Ryneveld and Brand were knighted for the feat.

Van Ryneveld left, and Brand right, February 1920.

Van Ryneveld commanded the new South African Air Force officially until 1933 and then unofficially until 1937 after which time he was the head of the South African General Staff, a position he occupied until 1949.  The dual role existed as no replacement was chosen for his air force role until 1937.  He died at age 81 in 1972.  Brand, who as also South African, remained in the RAF and returned to the UK to resume his duties with it.  He played an important and successful role as an RAF commander during the Battle of Britain but was on the wrong side of the internal British tactical debate on the "Big Wing" theory and was sidelined and retired in 1943, during the midst of the Second World War.  Following his retirement he married for the second time at age 50, marrying the sister of his first wife who had died in 1941.  The couple retired to what was then Rhodesia in 1950 and he died at age 74 in 1968.


Tuesday, August 27, 2019

August 27, 1919. End of the trail for the Trailmobile.

On this day in 1919, the Trailmobile kitchen had an accident that there was no recovering from.

The Red Summer resumed as white rioters attacked the black community in Laurens County, Georgia.  The attacks seemed to be related to white fears about rioting that had happened earlier in the summer in the neighboring county.  The event lasted two days and featured a lynching of a man presumed to be a leader in the black community on the first day.

Louis Botha, a Boer commander of the Boer War and the first Prime Minister of South Africa.  Botha had been a leader of the Boer community during the war and shepherded it into the peace with the British.  By some measures, his actions may be regarded as having converted the Boer defeat into a type of victory as South Africa obtained dominion status in 1910 and the Boers effectively governed the new state, with Both as its P.M.

Botha as a Boer commander.

Much of Botha's post Boer War effectiveness was due to his ability to unite Boer aspirations with the larger British Empire, something that was not only difficult but not always popular. During World War One Botha acted to commit troops to the British Empire cause which was enormously unpopular among the Boers and resulted in the Boer Rebellion.  None the less, he generally persisted and can be credited with effectively snatching a type of victory out of the jaws of defeat.

He effectively died of the Spanish Flu, which he'd survived, but which had weakened his heart.  Like many Spanish Flu victims, he died of the collateral effects of the disease.

The Soviets nationalized its film industry on this day in 1919.

Gasoline Alley for August 27, 1919.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Conscription in the English Speaking World. Passing an Anniversary

We've been posting some on conscription and today is a World War One conscription anniversary.

 
The Irish Canadian Rangers, a unit raised, but not fully filled, in Quebec, drawing from Irish Canadians.  It had to be filled out by Irish recruits from Ireland, and then was folded into another Canadian unit.  In some ways, its story is emblematic of the situation in Quebec during the Great War.

Not in the United States, however. Rather, its the centennial of the Military Service Act which, ineffectively, ushered in conscription in Canada for the Great War.

Canada was a country with a population of only 8,000,000 people during the great war.  It's almost a shock to realize how small the population really was.  23% of that population was made up of the Quebecois.  During the war 400,000 Canadians, more than a few of whom were English immigrants, although the majority were not, volunteered to serve in Canadian army.  Full mobilization, for countries with universal conscription, is usually regarded as 10% of the population, all male in the traditional form of conscription.  So Canada mustered men at the rate of 5% of the population.  Pretty darned impressive really for an all volunteer force. And that doesn't include those contributions from Prince Newfoundland, and Labrador, which were not part of Canada at the time.

Royal Newfoundland Regiment crossing the Rhine, 1918. This is not the Canadian army.

By 1917 the well had somewhat run dry in Canada. And in these regards it was facing the difficult choice that other English speaking countries had already faced.

Conscription was not a strong land army tradition in any of them.  The English had never had conscription for ground troops in modern times, although it did have it for sailors in the 18th and early 19th Century.  Indeed, conscription of sailors gave rise to the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom as the Royal Navy felt free to remove Englishmen from American ships to serve in the ongoing war with Napoleonic France.  There's more to that to be said, but given as this isn't an entry on the War of 1812 of the Napoleonic Wars I'll forgo telling it.  Anyhow, that did mean that England had a bit of a tradition of conscription, but not for land armies. That came to an end with the British Military Service Act of 1916 which made men from age 18 to 40 liable for service in the English Army.

The application of that act, of course, gave rise to the Easter Rebellion in Ireland which ultimately lead to the Anglo Irish War and an independent Ireland.  Conscription in Ireland was pointless, really, as the Irish were already serving in such high numbers.  In the end, conscription was likely necessary for the British in the war, but the cost proved to be great in terms of permanently severing the UK's political ties with Ireland.  Perhaps an added element of irony in regards to that is present however as the UK would resort to conscription very early in World War Two and the Irish, now citizens of the "Free State", once again volunteered to serve in the British Army in high numbers.  Very unusually, and in recognition of the Cold War, the UK would reinstate conscription in peacetime in 1948 but would phase it back out a decade latter and official end it in 1960.

Australia put conscription up for vote twice during the Great War, and both times it was defeated, although narrowly.  Australia would contribute 416,809 men to the Australian army during World War One, a massive contribution given its also small population.

An Australian pro conscription poster.  The Australians weren't persuaded and while plenty of Australians went to help, they were all volunteers.

Australia's conscription story was more complicated for World War Two during which it first made all unmarried men of 21 years of age liable for military training.  In 1942 it introduced conscription, but it wasn't until the end of the war that Australia deployed conscripts overseas.  Australian soldiers who were conscripts stand apart ab bit, during World War Two, as they did not measure up to the same aggressive quality, at first, that Australian volunteers did.  Australia twice reintroduced conscription after the World War Two, once for the Korean War and once for the Vietnam War, but unlike other nations that kept prolonged peacetime drafts, they kept them tied to the wars themselves.

New Zealand had a friendlier view towards compulsory military training than Australia, having had a militia history that is somewhat analogous to that of the United States. While almost every English Commonwealth nation had been looking at compulsory military training prior to World War One, that movement was fairly well received in New Zealand. New Zealand, therefore, had started compulsory military training for teenagers in 1909, exempting conscientious objectors.  Conscientious objectors, however, were not well regarded.  Having already established compulsory military training and having effectively created an army reserve prior to the war, it is not surprising that New Zealand followed the UK by enacting conscription in 1916.


That brings us back to Canada.

Canada had a vigorous militia system prior to the Great War and readily adapted that enthusiastically to its army that went overseas in World War One.  It was an all volunteer system, however.  Noticeably absent amongst the volunteers were the Quebecois.

There are undoubtedly a variety of reasons for this but chief amongst them were that the Quebecois, a sizable minority of the Canadian population at 23% of that population, but concentrated in Quebec where they were a majority, did not regard the United Kingdom as the mother country and had a distance and separate history from France, having been severed from Imperial France during France's royal Bourbon period.  They did not see the war in Europe as their war and were not keen in serving in it.  Their view cannot be regarded, quite frankly, as unreasonable.  By 1917 the Canadian government was ready to attempt to force the issue which was largely unsuccessful. There was large scale opposition to conscription in Canada and in the end only 24,132 conscripts were sent to France.  The word "only" has to be used with some caution, of course, as that's over a division of men and 124,000 men were drafted and therefore added to the army.  Not everyone in a North American army in any war has made it overseas, so perhaps this contribution was more significant than supposed.

Canada would repeat this history during World War Two. Canada enacted conscription at the start of the war but it was overwhelmingly opposed in  Quebec.  As a compromise Canadian conscripts were not liable for overseas service at first but by late 1944 this was changed.  During World War Two only 12,908, contemptuously called "zombies" were sent by order overseas, although quite a few draftees volunteered for overseas service.  The repeat of conscription during World War Two, however, served to worsen relations between the Quebecois and English speaking Canadians which would have an impact after the war.  Canada has not attempted to enact conscription since the war.

Other Commonwealth nations had other experiences with conscription.  I do not believe that it was attempted in the Union of South Africa during World War One or Two, no doubt because of lingering resentment against the British amongst the Afrikaans population during that period.  In 1967 the country started to conscript white men over the age of 16, a young age for conscription by that time, and then phased it back out in 1993 after the collapse of apartheid. The country has toyed with reintroducing it in recent years.  It's neighbor to the north, Rhodesia, enacted conscription following its declaration of independence from the UK modeling it on the British system.  I don't know if Zimbabwe retains it today.

Which leaves us with the US.

We've explored that a bit in recent posts.  Conscription was not a popular concept going into World War One by any means, having only strictly existed during the Civil War.  The Wilson Administration was so concerned it would be poorly received that it attempted to camouflage its nature by calling it "Selective Service", a name it still officially retains in the United States, under the theory that the country would be fooled that the country was simply selecting volunteers, more or less.  Nobody was fooled.

 Selecting the first U.S. draftee during World War One.

Generally, Americans volunteered enthusiastically, and enthusiastically accepted the draft, during the Great War.  Nonetheless that well known story isn't as simple as it is often related to be. There were two uprising amongst southern yeoman populations against conscription during the war, one of which we've already discussed.  These were serious armed uprisings, not mere protests.  And hard left organizations, which were in some ways at the peak of their popularity in the country, were dead set against conscription.  Organizations like the IWW actively campaigned against it.

The US did have compulsory militia duty on the part of military aged males from the colonial period up until after the Civil War, and that's a type of conscription, so this story isn't quite as clear as it might at first seem.  That had passed away by the late 1800s, however, and the memory of it seems to have been largely forgotten.  So the World War One draft was an unusual event.  After the war conscription was halted, only to be reintroduced just prior to World War Two, but with very narrow support.  It went away again after World War Two but, just as in the UK, it came back in 1948 with the need to form a large Cold War Army.  It was retained in the US up until 1975, although nobody was conscripted after 1973.

Jeffrey Mellinger, who was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1972 and who remained in the Army until he retired in 2011, making him the last American serving who entered the military as a conscript.