THE NORTHWARD EXPANSION 481
European employees and their descendants, but also to provide for large numbers of new European entrants.
With
mutual good will and a desire to find a just solution, I am sure the
problem can be solved on the basis of the absolute maintenance of white
leadership, which is so essential to the welfare of all. This, it must
be remembered, means the leadership not only of the Government but of
all the European citizens individually, and through the varied
organizations which they have formed. All enjoy the privileges of
leadership, and all must share the responsibilities which it entails.
When
the Forster Board of Inquiry met it was faced by the sweeping demands
of the Africans, who perhaps naturally but certainly erroneously,
claimed that there were no posts which they were not immediately
capable of filling, and with the apprehensions of the Europeans, not
only that their standard of living might be reduced but that they might
find themselves deprived of employment. The commission felt that if the
principle of the 'rate for the job' were strictly adhered to 'it would
be an effective loss to African advancement in that if Africans were to
compete with Europeans on level terms they would be unemployable'. For
the rest, the Europeans' fear of unemployment was met by the argument
that
we
feel that they are unnecessarily apprehensive. For the past history of
African development, the naturally slow adjustment of unfavourable race
characteristics, the immensity of the task of erecting an efficient and
comprehensive educational system, and the apparently favourable
prospects of industrial expansion, all suggest that Africans will be
unable, within the foreseeable future, to climb so fast and so far as
to endanger European employment in the territory.63
The
companies approached the problem in a more realistic fashion. As things
actually were, there were already jobs being done at some mines by
Africans and at others by Europeans: these were the 'identical jobs'
63 This
argument, it may be added, though calculated to allay fear, does not
deal with the fundamental fact that in all under-developed countries
(including the United States throughout its history) the entry of
peoples of lower attainments has always resulted in the more highly
skilled rising in the scale of efficiency and income. The fact that in
the Union of South Africa and in the Rhodesias immigration is from
within rather than from without does not alter the position. The
Dalgleish Commission was surely right in arguing (paragraph 256):
'The
advance of the African may not affect those other persons who are at
present in employment but may affect them indirectly through their
sons. In our view, however, it is totally wrong, in a country with such
a large untrained labour force, for Europeans,. taking into
consideration their educational, ethical and industrial background, to
be engaged in industry in the territory on semi-skilled jobs. There is
in our view ample scope in a country whose natural resources are as yet
mainly untapped for the sons of those Europeans at present in industry
or who may be required for industry to be trained for the higher posts
which will require to be filled. . . .'
