If This Be Treason (South African Treason Trial 1956-60)

200 Pages·1963·12.43 MB·English

by  JOSEPH

MrsJoseph isgivingher earn
ings from this book to Canon
Col/ins's Christian Action De
fence and Aid Fund. The
publishers wil/ be contributing
sixpence per copy sold.
IF THIS BE TREASON
Helen Joseph
English-born Helen Joseph was
Accused Number Two at the South
African Treason trial. A teacher and
a social worker, she had been uncon
cerned with politics all her life, and
only became active in connection
with the African National Congress
asa resultof what she learntthrough
her work of conditions of life among
non-Europeansin SouthAfrica.With
many others she was arrested and
charged with high treason, a capital
offence, after Congress's declaration
of its Freedom Charter in December,
1956. During the four-year trial
which followed she was again arres
ted, this time under the Emergency
Regulations which came into force
after the Sharpeville massacre in
March, 1960. She was then detained
in gaol for five months, spending
nineteen daysof that time in solitary
confinement, but apart from that
beingdelivered toCourtdaily for the
treason trial.
Mrs Joseph's book gives a com
plete picture of the trial--of the
absurdity of the Crown's case from
the legal point of view, and of its
tragic gravity in terms of rational
humanity-but its core isthe journal
she kept during her detention after
Sharpeville. This is a vivid, very
personal document, all the more
impressive for the warmth and lack
Continued on back flap
Jacket design by Derrick Holmes
I8s net
of pretentionwithwhichit iswritten.
From this central document the
reader comes to know Mrs Joseph's
personality and those of her fellow
accused-aninspiringexperience.
continued[rom backof jacket
For five years after the trial's end,
Mrs Joseph was confined under a
banning order to a restricted area
round her home in Johannnesburg.
The ban expired on May 1st, 1962.
Six hours later MrsJoseph set off on
a mission for the Human Rights
Welfare Committee, travelling over
7,000 miles as she traced Africans
banished from their homes in the
reserves because of their opposition
to the Bantu Authorities Act. She
managed to find thirty-eight of the
men and women thus exiled, and to
publicize their tragic plight widely
in articles and speeches. At going to
press, the last newswe have from her
is that her house had been suddenly
and unexpectedly searched by the
Special Branch, that all her papers
had been siezed, including her copy
of the typescript of this book and all
correspondence concerning it, and
that the detectives had told her
authoritatively that she would soon
be arrested again, though when, and
on what charge, they did not say.
Mrs Joseph ended her letter to us
with the words : 'I am not worried.
Once you have been tried for high
treason, any other charge is hard to
take seriously.'
WTite [or OUT List
ANDRE DEUTSCH
105 Great Russell Street London WCl

IF THIS BE TREASON

IFTHIS BE
TREASON
Helen Joseph
ANDRE DEUTSCH
FIRST PUBLISHED 1963BY
ANDRE DEUTSCH LIMITED
105GREAT RUSSELL STREET
LONDON WCl
COPYRIGHT© 1963BY HELEN JOSEPH
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
CLARKE. DOBLE AND BRENDON LTD
PLYMOUTH
CONTENTS
Foreword by Ex-Chief Albert Luthuli page 7
Author's Note 11
BACKGROUND TO THE TREASON TRIAL 13
DIARY OF EVENTS 18
ThisTrialisOutofDate 21
After Sharpeville 47
TheAccused TakeOver 69
Queen's Guests. or QC's? 90
Afterthe Emergency 121
Postscript 143
PROFILESOFTHE ACCUSED 146
APPENDIX A: Programme of Action of the African
National Congress 185
APPENDIX B: The Freedom Charter 188