Every step the Government takes to outlaw and oppose racial discrimination in Britain will be heartily supported by all sections of the left, and progressive people all over the world. It is a long time since a Prime Minister has been as forthright as Wilson on such an issue. But every, bit of good this stand (and the promise to bring in Fenner Brockway's Bill) #8 $2 fanger of boing negated. Whatever goodwill the new Labour Government has won in the third world over its stand against internal racial discrimination has been put in jeppardy by its decision to allow Belgium to use Ascension Island as a base for paratroopers,
No doubt, by the time readers receive this issue they will have read of the drealful massacre of whites in Stanleyville.! The full apparatus of the 'popular', i.e., capitalist, press is being mobilised to paint a picture of arson, rape and bloody murder by savage blackmen. What the truth of these stories is we are in no position to say, but what we can say is that the whole affair is marked by shocking hypocrisy. There has been a massacre going on for months, nay years, in the Congo - massacre waged by Tshombe, and before him Kasavubu et al, against the people who want genuine independence for the Congo. Yet the same papers which will have pages and pages (illustrated by gory pictures) about the 'slaughter of whites' have hardly noticed it.
However they could hardly ignore such sensational copy as that of a British lad who had fought as a mercenary in Tshombe's forces deserting. The Sunday Telegraph, October 15th, found space to report his desertion (together with others) because of "disgust at the senseless slaughter", The Daily Express followed with an ‘exclusive interview! and we quote what Geoffrey Munn of Crawley had to say: "as a mercenary I found myself taking part in the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent women and children." After an ambush "As a respisal we simply went to the nearest village where we were ordered to kill every man, woman and child, and then to set fire to everything." Has any British Government felt obliged to teke action on this? Are we to conclude that when 'blacks! are being slaughtered it is a matter of indifference, but when 'whites' are in danger military action from British bases automatically follows?
This is how the whole of African opinion will see this affair. This is a form of racial discrimination far worse than stopping a man having a drink in a pub{ African opinion will also regnrd it as more than a coincidence that Tshombe's forces entered Stanleyville at precisely the time the paratroopers arrived. Who can blame them?(or us if we conclude that this is old-fashioned naked imperialist intervention to bolster up a stooge regime?) The fact that whole affair has been covered with a smoke screen of imaginary or real threats to white people makes no difference. In fact there would be no danger at all to Europeans it weren't for the cruelties afflicted on Africans, in the name of civilisations but actually to defend investment. Labour is involved in this because Wilson did what no African Government would have done - allowed the Belgians a base,
This is not a very good augury for a Government which pledges itself to use the United Nations as a cornerstone in its foreign policy. Can anyone doubt what the result of a vote in UNO would be on Belgian and US action - those two countries would be the lepers! To protest may not be popular but to keep quiet would be to betray Labour's principles. Tom Dribere deserves full vraise for having snoken out.