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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 2. 8th March 1972

N.Z.ers Think Racist; Ignorant Of Facts

page 5

N.Z.ers Think Racist; Ignorant Of Facts

Many people in New Zealand regard others according-to their race rather than as human beings. Mrs Holland speaking in the Union Hall; on Wednesday, 1st March, expressed her feelings of hopelessness toward young people in N.Z. by citing our ignorance of the South African and Rhodesian situations.

She said that if in fact people in N.Z. and Australia thought of themselves as races, the situation was more tragic than in America, in a lot of Asian countries and also in Industrial countries where people regard themselves as human beings first and foremost. She said that although she was a British born subject and a permanent Australian resident, for all intents and purposes, she was still treated as an alien.

"There is a race war in Southern Africa"... "I support guerilla warfare in Africa because what alternative is there?" If the white people won't listen to them there it no choice but to make them listen. She said that the tragedy to her was that if the overt conflict in Southern Africa came earlier than expected, Australia and New Zealand will not be ready to listen to the Africans but will lust run in blindly with the whites.

She said a major reason why the British were negotiating with Ian Smith is because people like Reginald Maudling, Quentin Hogg and Rippon are the directors of companies which own some of the million pounds of capital investment in Rhodesia, if the British were serious about the commission to investigate opinion in Rhodesia they would have chosen en Australian or a New Zealander, a West Indian an Asian en Africa—a completely neutral group of people with a background to understand a colonial situation.

"There are mass graves in South Africa and in South Rhodesia, of those who have refused to move off their land end killed by Security Forces, and there are mass graves of Africans who were killed by Security Forces because they were suspected of harbouring guerilla's. And with all their powers the security force searched these homes end didn't find any evidence of guerilla's end they still killed these villages on the strength of rumour. If white people were being killed in the same way there would be an uproar, but because its just Africans being killed New Zealand and Australia don't bat an eyelid. And because the message has been disseminated for you by the whites in Southern Africa and because you are so ignorant of the situation, you just print what they give you."