Extract from a Cabinet memorandum by Patrick Gordon Walker, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, 25 September 1950

Transcript

2. The feature of the Nationalist Government’s policy, which has caused the greatest shock in their relations with the rest of the world is their programme of Apartheid- a stiffer form of the traditional South African policy of racial segregation. Their ultimate objective is the establishment in the Union of a Republican, white and predominantly Afrikaner, form of Government which would ensure the domination of the white race and postpone as long as possible, if not forever, the rise to power of the native population. While the Republican aspect of their policy has recently been in abeyance [receded], the Nationalists are pressing on with their racial programme. They have by legislation prohibited marriages between Europeans and non-Europeans, and they have now passed the Group Areas Act, 1950 described by Dr Malan as the ’kernel of apartheid’. Which extends earlier legislation so as to provide for the segregation of different racial groups of the population into defined areas for both residential and commercial purposes. In all this they have gone much further than their predecessors, the precious United Party Government, but much of the strength of the Nationalists is derived from the general support for some form of racial segregation apparent among most sections of all the white population including those of British descent.