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suspend her from college indefinitely. And it was just before Commencement! Miss Elizabeth Haight has written of this event, calling it a talc of an A.IE degree nearly lost. and her story will appear in her memoirs which she is now completing. Miss Haight's story is not quite correct: Vincent did not go driving with a college friend and her mother, nor did the car break down. Dr. MacCracken has also written about the episode in his book. The Hickory* Limb; he tells of Im part and that of the faculty in voting to let Yin cent return for Commencement hut not for the other festivities. So Vincent received her diploma hut she did not stand with her class to sing the Baccalaureate hymn for which she had composed words and music. She was heart broken about it.I do not remember whether or not I knew that Vincent should not have been away from college overnight. I'm sure Vincent remembered it but probably thought, ‘Oh, 1 won’t tell Charlie and spoil her fun. Many stories about our expedition have persisted through the years. And just recently a friend sent me a clipping from a Chicago newspaper with a new tale. Ii seems that a woman at a Vassar club meeting in October said that she heard that Vincent had crossed the Hudson to meet a cadet bean at West Point. That was a new version to me—and one that Vincent would have thoroughly enjoyed!Charlotte Babcock Sills 17To the Editor:1 enclose a snapshot of The Vassar Club of the R. M. S. Media/' as we called ourselves. By a delightful coincidence, live of the 200 passengers on the August 13th sailing of the Media from Liverpool (during the Seamen's Strike) were Vassar graduates. A husband took this picture of the five of us, and the girlswere eager that 1 send it in to you.This is the listing of the group, left to right: Isabel R, Mann ’18, Margaret Walker Green '30. Marie Norton Van Dorm ’19, Muriel Tilden Eldridgc Tj, Jeannette Miller Otis ’17.Since half of the 200 passengers were British, and almost halfof the remaining hundred, men, we thought thai our Club was not only a very pleasant part of shipboard life, but also a coincidence worthy of space in our admirable Alumnae Magazine,Isabel R. Mann h 8To the Editor:Mrs. Purcell's article in the October issue of the Alumnae Magazine deserves careful reading and I hope the editors will ask some distinguished South African like Dr, Absolom Vilaknzi of the Hartford Seminary Foundation or Mr. Ezekiel Mphahlele of the Universiiv-College of Nigeria (both, alas, living and working in exile) to comment on the many controversial points she raises.I would like to limit my comments to a single item in Mrs. Purcell’s article: her suggestive comparison of U.S. history with that of European settlement in South Africa, since ii seems to me a valid and revealing juxtaposition. Unfortunately, 1 arn forced to draw quite different conc lusions from my acceptance of her analogy.Readers will recall that Mrs. Purcell asked for our understanding of the problems faced by the European minority there, by reminding us of how this continent was settled: the early destruction of the original American population and their confinement to reservations. She might well have added the refusal, in some states until quite recently, to let them vote, and particularly. in the 1930 s. the drive to deprive them of their few remaining natural resources, to strengthen her case. Mrs. Purcell does not say it. but she could well accuse of hypocrisy those who condone the policy of spoliation and denaturalization at home while waxing indignant about wrongs perpetrated 8,000 miles away.Fortunately, in this country, a beginning has been made to reverse this trend. With increasing frequency the U.S. federal courts have recognized the illegal ways in which this or that part of the national territory had been acquired, by tricking or annihilating the American inhabitants, and have awarded damages in the many millions to the ethnic groups wronged. Even Arizona has finally allowed the Pima, Hopi, and Pnpago to vote. Even Robert Moses had to compromise his offensive against the Iroquois (Edmund Wilson’s recent hook gives a moving account of this controversy). Organized in the National Congress of American Indians, they aim at lull recognition of their rights, which include not only equal opportunity and equal access to the rewards of U.S. life, but the assertion of the validity of their historical claim to the territories they occupied at the moment of European invasion. Annually, the Iroquois delegation tries to get the United Nations to intervene on their behalf, and I am not as convinced as arc other observers that their effort is futile.Following Mrs. Purcell's analogy, it then seems less difficult to work out a solution for the Union of South Africa, just as Arizona managed to return Barry Golclwater to the Senate even alter the Papago were allowed to vote, so universal suffrage will not necessarily keep a talented European congresswoman like Margaret Ballinger from being re-elected to parliament. In my conversations with South African leaders like Professor Z. K. Mathews, or Oliver Tam bo, I have found them quite ready to grant that the European minority has frequently made significant contributions to South African life: the work of Nadine Gordimer or Alan Pa ton, of Yiolaine junod or Isaac Schapera, will endure as uniquely South African even after apartheid polities are forgotten. The question of how apartheid will be abolished remains to plague us, and since the 25 new African republics feel as strongly about it as they do, it is a matter of concern to all of us.John V. Mirra, Vassar CollegeProfessor of AnthropologyTo the Editor:Elizabeth Purcell in her article, Another View of SouthAfrica.’’ says that what Americans have learned from the headlines is dangerously inadequate and one-sided, She is right, since headlines only begin to tell a story. Beyond that, it depends on which papers—and which documents, if any—von read.In stating that on the African continent political freedom is everywhere threatened by poverty, backwardness and self-seeking intervention, Mrs. Purcell neglects to mention that in theUnion political freedom is most threatened by flagrant disregard of political freedom. For example, the most recent news from South Africa concerned the nationwide” vote on whether the Union should become a republic. Out of a population of1 | ,000,000, only the 3,000,000 white people were allowed to vote. Ext luded were 10,000,000 Africans, 150,000 Asians, and 1,360,000 coloured” (mixed racial extraction) . Thus 78 per cent of the people were dented the right to vote.This is not the only violation of human rights. Underemergency regulations invoked under the Public Safety Act after the Sharperille incident in March igfio, the government mas arrest anyone it deems necessary, with or without a warrant, and hold him as long as the Minister of Justice wishes. Disclosing the names of persons so arrested, even to the prisoner’s family, is an offense, as is printing or distributing any statement considered subversive, staying away from work, or inciting others to do so. The Commissioner of Police may order curfews and close
Newspaper Details
Poughkeepsie Vassar Alumnae Quarterly
Poughkeepsie, New York, US
Thu, Dec 01, 1960
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Keith S.
USA 20 Jul 2023
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