British government would be
useless, for the British government has declared that the Union of
South Africa is "self-governing."

Such, in brief, is the political status of the Negro in British South
Africa, and the government of Great Britain, having set up
"self-governing South Africa," has thus far refused to come to the
rescue of the natives. As a member of the British Parliament said
during the debate on the Union Bill, "it [the proposal for
unification] is the unification of the white races to disfranchise the
coloured races, and not to promote union between all races in South
Africa." The passage of the Union Bill sounded the political death
knell of the South African native.

His economic condition is equally as disheartening. When the Union
was set up, native employees of the government in the railway, post
office, telegraph and civil service systems were discharged in large
numbers and their places were given to Europeans. Enforced labor of
natives is statutory in Natal, and a tax upon natives, from which they
are exempted upon certification that they have worked for a certain
number of months during the year, is levied throughout Cape Colony.
The most iniquitous feature of the economic status of the native South
African, however, is that which resulted from the passage, in 1913, of
the Natives' Land Act "to take effective measures to restrict the
purchase and lease of land by natives" by setting apart certain areas
in which natives were not permitted to acquire land. It assigned
approximately 21,500,000 acres of land to the 5,000,000 natives,
reserving 275,000,000 acres for the 1,500,000 white inhabitants.
Natives who were living within the area set aside for white
inhabitants had to sell their grain and stock and either move their
families to an area assigned to natives or hire themselves out to
white men. This condition has existed, moreover, since 1913. Recently,
however, the Natives' Land Act has been declared to be without effect,
because its provisions conflict with those of the original South
Africa Act; but, as Mr. Molema remarks, the South Africa Act is easily
amended. There is nothing in the past record of the Union to indicate
that an amendment to cover the Natives' Land Act will not be
incorporated in the Constitution, thus making the natives' serfdom
permanent.

Since the native South African is a political and economic nonentity,
it is not surprising to note that, socially, he is on one side