PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 99 



THE CLAIMS OF THE NATIVE QUESTION UPON 

 SCIENTISTS. 



By C. T. Loram, M.A., LL.B., Ph.D., 



Member of Native Affairs Commission. 



Presidential Address to Section E, delivered July 13, 1921. 



Kecent happenings at Lovedale, Port Elizabeth, and Bulhoek 

 have, or should have, demonstrated to the people of South Africa 

 that in the adjustment to each other of the two races — the Native- 

 question, as we call it, and the European question, as I have seen 

 it called in a Native newspaper — we have a situation as difficult 

 as that in Ireland, and as vital to South Africa as was the Great 

 War to the people of Europe. It will be remembered that in that 

 conflict a situation of stalemate arose, when neither side appeared 

 to be able to make progress. Then the help of the scientist was 

 invoked, and with their energies stimulated by the great issues 

 involved, the chemists, physicists, and engineers discovered, in- 

 vented, or improved the poison gas, the bombs, the tanks, the 

 submarines, and the other wonderful weapons of modern warfare. 

 The Government and Parliament of this country, the officials and 

 the general public, are faced with the most perplexing situation 

 which has confronted South Africa, and, like the soldiers in the 

 trenches, find it difficult to advance and impossible to retreat. The 

 machinery for dealing with the Native question has become obsolete 

 and ineffectual, and for too many years the very real difficulties of 

 the position have caused us to do little or nothing, as if leaving 

 the problem alone would make it any easier. If the war spirit 

 were dominating us in this real but undramatic struggle for a fair 

 and workable race adjustment, we should be aware of four great 

 facts : First, that victory or success cannot be won without real 

 sacrifice on the part of all sections of the community; secondly, 

 that the moral and material support of the whole nation must be 

 behind the undertaking ; thirdly, that there must be unity of com- 

 mand with variety of attack; and finally, that the help of the 

 scientist must be invoked. It is with the last of these points that 

 I propose to deal in this paper, and it is with especial pleasure that 

 I have seen that the President of the Association has set so good 

 an example in bringing his wide knowledge and scientific methods 

 to the study of our problem. 



The general ignorance of the people on Native matters is 

 appalling. Attendance at the debates in Parliament, discussions 

 with municipal bodies and philanthropic Europeans, lectures to 

 and meetings with Natives have convinced me that in attempting 

 to attack this difficult problem we people of South Africa, like 

 quack doctors, are prescribing for a complaint, while we are 

 ignorant of both the disease and the general condition of the 



