The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 225
209 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN carried, would be difficult to enforce. Sanctions limited to oil are more easily enforceable and could be very effective. The economy of a country, industrialized to the degree to which South Africa is, could be brought to a standstill by the denial of petrol. On the other hand, the oil-producing interests would not be very adversely affected, because the total consumption of petrol in South Africa is not so high that the loss of that market would affect materially either the price or the disposal of the petrol produced. That proposal did not get the wholehearted support of even the entire Afro-Asian group, because some of the oil-producing countries were apprehensive of its effect on them. This year, I believe, another effort will be made to get through a resolution recommending general sanctions. I am very doubtful whether it would obtain a two-thirds majority, and even if it does, I doubt whether any concrete measure will be put into effect, beyond its serving as notice to South Africa that things are getting more and more difficult for them and that they had better pay attention to world opinion on this problem. From that point of view, it might perhaps do some good. But I have little hope that the present administration of South Africa will be moved by anything of this kind. In fact, it is becoming more and more intransigent. Its latest law, known generally as the "Law of Sabotage," is a very savage measure. Indeed, it can scarcely be called a law. It is more or less an executive measure. Under it, almost any action may be taken against anybody on the ground that what he has said or done constitutes a menace or an injury to the state. The "state," of course, means the white population, or even only the Boer population. The situation is getting more and more difficult. They seem deliberately to have taken a stand which means all or nothing. In the conditions of today, no state can get away with that. If the issue is deliberately cast in the form of all or nothing, it is more likely to result in nothing rather than in all. The policies of the present administration, if persisted in, will only lead to ruin. I believe I have a fairly sympathetic understanding of their difficulties - it is no use pretending that they are just acting out of malice; they are faced with real difficulties. But I am convinced that their own interest demands that some other solution must be sought whereunder something may be yielded in order to save the rest.