Adlai Stevenson Tours AfricaSource: Africa Today, Vol. 2, No. 2 (May - Jun., 1955), p. 8Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4183691 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 09:32

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.158 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 09:32:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

- 8-

ADLAI STEVENSON TOURS AFRICA

Adlai Stevenson paid a month's visit to Africa, lasting from mid-April to mid-May. During this time he visited Kenya, Uganda, North and South Rhodesia, South Africa, the Congo, and the Gold Coast.

In Kenya, with his jeep sunk axle-deep in the mud, he photographed six lions fifteen feet away. "It was one of the most exciting experiences in my life", he afterwards commented. In South Africa he stated that he could foresee no success for Premier Strijdom's applica- tion of racial discrimination policies to industry, because the world was moving in the opposite direction. In the Congo, where his plane landed at Leopoldville to refuel, he declared himself impressed with the efforts of the Belgian government, and stated that everywhere he had been on his tour, with the exception of South Africa, he had found progress in the improvement of race relations.

Adlai Stevenson's African trip was not primarily for pleasure, nor was it primarily political. It was a business trip which he undertook for several unidentifiable legal clients. He was accompanied by his law partner, William McCormick Blair, Jr. and also by Mr. Cass Canfield, President of Harper's Magazine, and Mr. Lloyd Garrison (a New York advocate).

After Mr. Stevenson's departure, he was attacked by members of the South African Nationalist cabinet for condemning race segregarion. Typical of the attacks was that made by W. Eric H. Loeuw Minister of Finance, who said: "South Africa is one of the United States' best customers. * It is to be regretted that the leader of the opposition party in America after a stay of only a week in Johannesburg expressed himself on an internal politJc-l question such as the Government's apartheid policy. Such interference in our local affairs by a distinguished visitor who is furthermore also a political leader in his country makes a very unfortunate impression and has already had its effect locally. "

AFRICAN MINERS WIN CONCESSIONS

The North Rhodesian European Mineworkers Union -- which recently rejected money sent by white South African miners for fear lest its acceptance introduce the thin end of the "apartheid" wedge into Central Africa -- has agreed to allow African mineworkers to under- take thirteen categories of jobs hitherto reserved "for whites only".

The union has also agreed to discuss the advanc ement of Africans to other jobs, provided that whites will not lose their jobs in consequence, or be forced to accept lower rates of pay.

Although the jobs are mostly "fringe" occupations (i.e. special jobs, providing employment for only one or two, rather than cateogories including large numbers of men), these con- cessions are nevertheless welcome. Although there are many South Africans amongst the white miners in the North Rhodesian copperbelt, racial attitudes shown by the whites are varted, and do not fall into a rigid South-African-style pattern. Generally speaking, white union leaders are more progressive than the rank and file of union members, although there are exceptions to this.

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.158 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 09:32:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions