Contents: THE CASE OF THE TRACKING STATIONS • The Challenge • The Stations • The "Independence" Incident • Verwoerd's Attitude • South African Government Ford Boycott • The report says a conflict between space and race faces the U.S. Government; South Africa denies the U.S. the right to place American Negro personnel in her South African tracking stations. The report says while addressing a Nationalist Party rally on June 25, 1965, in De Aar, South Africa, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd said his Government would see to it that the United States would respect South African customs and laws with regard to the tracking station; by this he meant a policy of "Whites Only" at these U.S....
Contents: THE CASE OF THE TRACKING STATIONS • The Challenge • The Stations • The "Independence" Incident • Verwoerd's Attitude • South African Government Ford Boycott • The report says a conflict between space and race faces the U.S. Government; South Africa denies the U.S. the right to place American Negro personnel in her South African tracking stations. The report says while addressing a Nationalist Party rally on June 25, 1965, in De Aar, South Africa, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd said his Government would see to it that the United States would respect South African customs and laws with regard to the tracking station; by this he meant a policy of "Whites Only" at these U.S. installations would be enforced. The report says the United States maintains four installations connected with the space program in South Africa; all are financed under NASA, though one (a camera station) is connected to the Smithsonian Institution; according to a State Department official, a little over 200 persons are employed in the four stations. Roughly one-quarter are American, the balance South African; no non-whites are employed. The report says The tracking station case is not an isolated one; it is the extension of a May, 1965, incident involving the U.S. Aircraft Carrier "Independence"; the vessel had been scheduled to call at Cape Town until Dr. H. Muller, Minister of Foreign Affairs, granted permission for planes to land from the Carrier provided no Negro airmen were included. The report discusses Minister of Transport Mr. Schoeman, the unofficial boycott of the Ford Motor Company, the Department of Transport, the arms embargo on South Africa, light 4-wheeled trucks, armored trucks, Minister of Economic Affairs Dr. Deiderichs, the Paarl Town Council, Parliament, and Opposition leader Sir de Villiers Graaff.
