DuPlessis Maintains Segregation Only Solution for South Africans

The ultimate aim of the Union of South Africa's racial policy is the co-existence of two separate major nations, the white and the Bantu, Wentzel C. DuPlessis, Ambassador from South Africa, said last night in an address to the Law School Forum.

Present criticism of South Africa's treatment of the Bantu and other colored peoples is based on ignorance, he charged. "World opinion which has the power to criticize does not have the responsibility to govern. We do," DuPlessis continued. The end result, he asserted, will prove the correctness of our policy.

"We are moving gradually" toward a definite and lasting goal, DuPlessis went on, but "people won't believe us." He said that a slow adjustment toward total separation is taking place.

South Africa's policy, DuPlessis maintained, is shaped by the belief that "the fact that all men are equal does not mean that all men are the same." Furthermore, two things must be regarded in formulating any plan: the conditions of life, which in South Africa are different from anywhere else, and the needs engendered by these facts, he said.

Already all South Africa has benefited from the government's racial practices, DuPlessis pointed out. "Nobody, but nobody, is going hungry is South Africa," and wage rates are "princely" in comparison with those of most other countries, the speaker held.

Reject Integration

Integration has been rejected by everyone, even the Bantu, DuPlessis continued, and universal franchise is considered impossible. Only complete separation remains, however cruel it may seem, as a solution to South Africa's problems, he insisted.

Under fire from the panel of Erwin N. Griswold, Dean of the Law School, Jeffrey E. Butler of Oxford University, and Oscar Handlin, professor of History, DuPlessis replied that outsiders are incapable of realizing the uniqueness of South Africa's dilemma.