 Ports of call! There beyond the thin blue line where sky and sea meet are distant lands, strange ports, exotic people. Out there lie mystery, romance, the lure of the far away. Come, let's visit them. Join us as we head for Ports of Call. Our steamer sails south of the equator into seas lit by the Southern Cross. We skirt the west coast of Africa past the steaming jungles of the Gold Coast, past the sprawling many-mouth Congo, south and still further south to the Cape of Good Hope. The Union of South Africa is our port of call, the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost tip of Africa. Here, east and west meet as the monsoon-driven waves of the Indian Ocean spend the last of their fury in dying struggle with the turbulent waters of the Atlantic. The Cape of Good Hope, a friendly port to centuries of treasure-seeking mariners. Today, the gateway to South Africa. Here at the Cape, the early navigators bound east for the wealth of the Indies found safe anchorage in Table Bay, and here in 1652 landed a party of colonists led by Jan van Rebek to establish the first settlement in South Africa as a supply station for the merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company. Quaint Dutch houses arose beneath the cloud-capped top of Table Mountain. Sturdy Dutch burgers planted corn and grapes and traded for cattle with the natives and the little community came to be known as the Tavern of the Seas where the weary seafarer might pause on his journey half around the world and put aboard fresh water and provisions. Here under warm southern skies, round-headed Dutch boys and apple-cheek Dutch girls danced the dances of the Netherlands while dusky bewildered hot-and-tots looked on an aboriginal amazement. In a century and a half, the broad belts and the bright sun of South Africa had wrought many changes in the Dutch settlers, broadening their shoulders, heightening their stature, developing a new race of boars or farmers. From the narrow confine of the coastline, they had trekked northward inland to the wide solitudes of the high plateaus. They had become gentlemen farmers, owners of thousands of acres and hundreds of slaves. Then in 1814, events occurred in faraway Europe which profoundly changed their lives. The Congress of Vienna which repartitioned Europe after Napoleonic Wars granted the Dutch colony at the Cape to Great Britain. Scarcely had the news reached the boars than 4,000 British colonists landed at Algoa Bay and established the town of Port Elizabeth. The natural friction between alien peoples became too much to bear when in 1834 the British government proclaimed the emancipation of all slaves in the British domain. In scores of Dutch villages, hot-headed farmers met. I tell you, my nepirators, they will ruin us. They have no right to take away our slaves. They belong to us. By only last year I paid 100 pounds for a book. The English will pay us for our slaves, Peter van Rijn. So they say, but how much? They have a lot of us more than a million pounds. Yeah, and our slaves are worth 3 million. Why not free our cattle and our pigs on chickens then? Are slaves no better than a horse? In my grandfather's day they shot bushmen and hot-headed pots on site. We forgot what is the world coming to. And then they make the money for the slaves payable in London. How are we going to get the London for our money? There are the agents. The agents, the robbers. Look what happened to Jan van Schlicht. He listened to the agents. He took 100 pounds for a claim worth 500. His slaves are free now and he can get no one to work his land. In my grandfather's day they had a solution. When the Dutch East India Company got unreasonable. What was that? They didn't like things. They trekked. Yeah, and that's what we must do. Let the English have their precious Cape Colony. North of us Burgers is a continent. Thousands of mergers of good land. It belongs to no one. We can take it. Just as we took this land a hundred years ago. What the hell are savage coffers in that land? What of that? There were bushmen in this land when our grandfathers came and now look at it. Villages and farms everywhere. It's becoming too crowded. Give it over to the Englanders. Africa is a big place. We'll trek to a new country where we can find freedom in our own way. Thus began the great trek. And in four years, more than 7,000 boars, men, women and children packed their goods and chattels, their Delft China and their tulip bulbs, their quaint clocks in their Bibles into covered wagons and left civilization behind. Northward they trekked across the Orange River through mountain passes to the high belt a mile above sea level. On further across the Ball River, into the country which soon was to be known as the Tronsfall. Northwest they trekked across the Dragon Mountains, the Drakensberg, whose forbidding peaks rising seer and brown 11,000 feet above the belt barred their way into Natal. They died by the side of the road. They were massacred by treacherous Kafer tribes. But still they trekked, indomitable, spurred onward by their birthright of freedom. In the end they triumphed. And between the Orange River and the Ball, they formed the Orange Free State. And beyond the Ball River, they formed the independent Republic of the Tronsfall. And here the British, weary of trying to bend the unbendable will of these rugged Dutchmen, were content to allow them to remain. Here perhaps they would have remained in independence. Had not a young boar child named Erasmus Jacobs been playing one day on the banks of the Orange River and found a curious white pebble which he brought home to his mother. Motor, look at the pretty stone I found. Don't bother me with pebbles, Erasmus. I've got to get to my churning. But look, Motor, it shines blue and orange and red in the sun. Well, well, now isn't that pretty. Good day, Mrs. Jacobs. Good day, neighbor Vanika. How do things go with you? Oh, as well as a little woman can expect. And little Erasmus, is he well? Yeah, untroublesome too, as you might expect of a glowing boy. All this running off to play with the black children and finding books and animals and bringing them home. Ah, like this stone he brought me the other day. He would be a lot more good to me if he helped me with the cattle rather than picking up some pretty stones along the river. Let me see it, please. Here you are. Hmm, it is pretty. Yeah, it's pretty. So are the sunsets, but you can't buy a new dress with them either. I'll buy this from you, Frau Jacobs. You'll buy what? This little pebble. Pied it? Oh, my friend. Keep it if you want it. You are too good a neighbor to take money from for a piece of colored glass. And to your shulk for nacre. Who you in there, O'Reilly? Can I be selling you some ostrich plumes I'm just after bringing from the fell? No, I don't think so. Or does the good wife need some needles and thread? I hear on me back I have a kettle that'll be the delight of your kitchen. Not this time, O'Reilly. Not for money, that is. What do you mean, not for money? Well, I'll trade you something for your kettle and some ostrich plumes. And what have you to trade? A diamond. And where would you be finding a diamond in this hot land? Down by the river bank it was found. Look at it. Just see how it shines. Get along with your man. That ain't no diamond. It's a chunk of glass. No, it isn't. It's cold to the touch. And it has light in it like no piece of glass ever had. It looks like glass to me. Well, if it's glass, it's the prettiest piece of glass you ever saw. So you're out nothing to trade your kettle and a few plumes for it. Maybe. And maybe I'm being stung. But Riley had driven a sharp bargain for Erasmus Jacob's pebble was an uncut diamond weighing 21 carats and the Irish peddler received $2,500 for it. A local diamond rush began along the banks of the Orange River. But nothing worthwhile was found until two years later, when Lucky Shalkman N'Kerk traded a black boy his barn full of livestock for a large opalescent stone the native had found on the riverbank. For this stone, Shalkman N'Kerk received $55,000. Cut and polished, it became the famous star of South Africa. And it was sold to the Earl of Dudley for $120,000. The diamond rush was on. From all over the world, the fortune-seekers poured into South Africa. Camps with populations of 10,000 sprang up overnight along the banks of the Orange River. Then diamonds were discovered on a farm called Furaitsik. And with them, the most astonishing mineral discovery in the history of the world. A load of diamond-bearing rock. A diamond pipe, as it became known. Stretching down as far as man knew to the very center of the earth. This was Kimberley, the Gulkhanda of the 19th century. And a mile away was another diamond pipe, the De Beers Mine. It was in Kimberley with the first rush of prospectors that a young Englishman named Cecil Rhodes, vacationing from Oxford, staked out a claim. Well, Harry, it looks though that you'll be able to make the summer pay. Rather, this claim of yours is one of the best in the field. But it can't last, Harry. What do you mean it can't last? There seems to be diamonds just as deep as you dig. That's exactly it. Look around you. All these claims, 31 feet square with roads between them and some of them dug down 20 feet already. The roads still high up in the air, like high fences. Those roads are going to collapse. The whole thing is impractical the way it is. It's got to be consolidated. Consolidated? Exactly. If you're interested in seeing that, they're all busy grabbing to themselves. I'm looking ahead. You mean you're going to consolidate? Yes, and I want your help. Circulate among the miners. Find out the ones who are discouraged in planning to leave the diggings. Let me know and we'll buy up their claim. It'll take time, but in the end we'll control the field. Then we can operate it on a money-making basis. It's an ambitious undertaking, Cecil. Of course it is. This is an ambitious country. We're going to do things down here on a big scale. Good afternoon, Mr. Loose. Like a box of cigars today? No, thank you. I've still got some left. Well, I'll see you the next time I come along. All right, Barney. We're fellow that Barney Bernardo, Harry, looking around the mines selling cigars on that little yellow pony of his. We're perhaps, but he'll bear watching what you mean. I have heard that that little yellow pony used to belong to a diamond trader. Nobody will tell Bernardo where the diamonds are because he's a Jew. But the pony knows the route and sees him for the abandoned claims. That little Jew, cigar peddler, may have the same idea that you have, Cecil. Let him have any ideas he wants. He won't stand in my way. But seven years later, Barney Bernardo, the cigar peddler, was standing squarely in Cecil Rhodes' way. He had become the largest single stockholder in the Kimberley field while Cecil Rhodes was consolidating the De Beers field. But Rhodes would not be stopped. He summoned his shrewd lieutenant, Alfred Byte, to his office in Kimberley. He said, I want you to whisper the story around that I'm raiding Bernardo's Kimberley stock. And then I want you to buy up every share you can get your hands on. That's going to be an expensive procedure. No, it isn't, because you're going to sell as fast as you buy. What? What do you suppose Bernardo will do when he hears about our raid? He'll try to buy in his stock. Oh, I see. You'll be buying in the same stock. You'll have to buy any more because of the price and we'll be unable to stop buying because the price will drop and ruin him. What will he do? The only thing he can do. Sell out to us. Well, Barney, it's unfortunate that you're in such a difficult position that I can help you out if you're willing to accept $25 million for your Kimberley holdings. Look here, Rhodes, this was a deliberate trick on your part. Trick? I'm sure I don't understand, old fellow. The stock market is a most unmanageable steed and when you ride it, sometimes you ride for a fall. You know that I'm against the wall. Well, I suspect that you are in need of assistance. I'm forced to accept your offer of $25 million for the mine. Exactly. And of course, you will enter the new organization in the capacity of an executive and as an important stockholder, but I will control it. Your times are stiff. $25 million is better than ruin, isn't it, Barney? Yeah, I suppose it is. It amounts to this, Barney. There isn't room in Africa for this. One of us had to absorb the other. Well, that's done. Now we can work together for the development of this great country. Let's shake on that. It's impossible to resist you, Rhodes. But although Rhodes and Bernardo made their peace to the tune of the drawing of the largest check in the history of the world and became partners, the former Jewish peddler found it impossible to accept his defeat. A board ship bound for England, the failure of his dreams became too much for him and one black knight somewhere off the coast of Africa, he dropped silently overboard. Rhodes went on to greater heights. Rather comfortably situated on an income of $5 million a year, he became prime minister of the Cape Colony, dictator of the annexed territory of Matabeela land, which became known as Rhodesia and he became the most important figure in South Africa. But his ascendant star toppled as quickly as Barney Bernardo plunged into the sea and L.S. Jamison, administrator of Rhodesia, made his famous raid into the Transvaal Republic in an attempt to annex that territory for Great Britain. The raid was a failure, but the die was cast. Rhodes resigned his premiership and the Dutch republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State prepared for the Boer War. On the 31st of May, 1899, Sir Alfred Milner, British High Commissioner to the Cape Colony, met with President Paul Kruger of the Transvaal in an attempt to avert the impending catastrophe. President Kruger, Her Majesty's government has repeatedly pointed out to you the injustices your government inflicts upon British nationals who have vented your country since the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand. We did not ask the outlanders to come to our republic. They are not welcome. We do not care for them to remain. But they are contributing to the wealth of your nation. Their industry in the gold mines has built your city of Johannesburg. They are pouring capital into your country for further development. Yet you place the utmost restrictions upon them, such as requiring 14 years' residence before permitting them to vote. It is the law. Then I asked you to have the law changed. And furthermore, I asked you to reform your police system so that such incidents as the shooting of my countrymen, Mr. Edgar on the nearest suspicion, can no longer occur. Sir Alfred, we did not invite your countrymen to the Transvaal. We moved to the Transvaal to escape the domination of your British. I was one of the four trackers. I walked from the Cape to Pretoria behind my father's wagon. I was present when Dingon, the Zulu, massacred my people. Sir Alfred, we have fought hard for this land. We have paid for it with our blood. We do not intend that it shall be taken away from us by the insidious immigration of Englanders. We will not yield one inch. You realize, President Kruger, that Her Majesty's government has a higher responsibility in defending the personal rights of her citizens? I do. You realize that your action might lead to war? I do, and I would welcome it if that war would gain for South Africa, complete independence and union under its own flag. The intense patriotism of the Dutch nationalists, which prevented them from budging an inch from their stand, finally resulted in an ultimatum issued on October 9th, and Great Britain was forced to go to war to protect the thousands of its citizens who were at work in the world's largest gold fields in the land. The war lasted two and a half years. It laid waste the country, ruined industry, and won for Great Britain the independent states of Orange and the Transvaal. Peace came. Men laid down their guns. But Dutch hated British and British hated Dutch. It has taken a generation of native-born South Africans to melt this hatred into a mutual understanding. Along South Africa's great Central Plateau and in the high mountains row many fantastic animals. Wildebeest and the Eland dashed fleetily across the belt to escape the leopard. Ostriches in great flocks proved to the observant traveler to hide their heads in the sand when frightened. But rather, run as fast as their long legs will carry them. Hyenas and jackals run in packs in the bushbelt and still in the Cape Colony may be seen an occasional elephant. No longer the prey of big game hunters but free to go his lumbering way protected by rigid game laws. In 1860 the sugar planters of Natal, finiting impossible to get results with caffer natives arrested and received permission to import Hindus as chief contract labor. The Hindus came and they stayed and they multiplied so that today there are nearly 200,000 of them in South Africa. Fearing the increase of the Hindus as they fear the multiplication of the Negro population the white man in South Africa grants the Asiatic no rights. Classes him with all others whose skin is not white. This attitude was to have grave implications for the British Empire. In 1891 there came to South Africa to practice law a young British Indian educated in London whose name was Mahandas Karamchand Gandhi. Three things happened to the young barrister Gandhi in South Africa which have cost the British Empire millions of dollars and years of worry. Upon arriving at the port of Durban the young Gandhi wearing the turban which the devout Hindi never removes in public attends a session of court to acquaint himself with the justice in South Africa. The case of Rin van Horst versus the government. Pardon me a moment council. You there with the turban off. Yes, I beg your pardon. It is not permitted to wear a hat in this court. I beg your pardon sir. I am Mahandas Karamchand Gandhi. I am a barrister. I don't care who you are, remove your turban. In my country it is customary for a barrister to plead his case in his turban. Then I shall leave the court. Proceed, council. The second insult. Barrister Gandhi buys a first class railway ticket for his trip to Pretoria for he is to handle a case. But before the train leaves the station a fellow passenger in his compartment has become outraged. Conductor! Conductor! Come here this instant I say. Right house sir. What is it sir? Look here, this fellow sitting here is biggest life, this Indian. I won't have it I say. I agree with you sir. Come along you. I beg your pardon? You can't ride first class. But I have a first class ticket. I don't care, you can't ride first class. The luggage vans for the likes of you. I will not ride in the luggage van. I have got a ticket and I demand that it be honored. Well I'll strike me pink ain't that something. You demand. Nobody in New Ethan can say that to me. Get off the train. What? Get off the train. Go on. Get off or I'll throw you off. One now. I ain't a man to be tampered with. Throw it in south. Throne off the train, Gandhi takes a coach. He is seated in the crowded smoker when a boar farmer comes in. Here you. Get up. I beg your pardon? Get up. I want to sit there. But I am sitting here. You can sit on the floor. Come on. Get up I say. I will not. What? Are you smart or devil? Such treatment made a profound impression upon the eager young Hindu. Formulated in his mind, his life ambition. Crystallized his whole political philosophy. This, then, is the civilization which the white man is trying to force upon us. Cruelty. Ignorance. Race hatred. Servitude. I will never stop struggling against it. I will never admit the hegemony of the European. I will battle for the rights of my people until they have been won or until in all wise God has stilled my efforts forever. As a result of the boar war, the goal for which the best people have fought, the war, the goal for which the best minds in South Africa had long been struggling was won. The Union of the two Dutch Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State with Cape Colony and Natal. Hot British and Dutch heads slowly cooled off as the work of reconstruction required their attention. The most active leaders of the boar forces, Generals Hetzog and Smuts, became the outstanding leaders of the new Union government. In 1930, the Imperial Conference in London granted South Africa complete independence under the British Commonwealth of Nations. And today, with her racial differences slowly disappearing beyond the memories of the present generation, with her diamond mines, her gold mountains, her newly discovered platinum fields, her unlimited agricultural opportunities, South Africa faces a brilliant future as one of the important nations of the world. There's the warning whistle. The anchor is ready to up anchor and we must hurry aboard. Thank you, South Africa, for your hospitality. Now we know why you are so justly faint. Here we go, sailing away for another port of call where we will drop anchor next week. Next week, at this same time, our radio liner drops anchor in another of the world's famous ports of call. We hope you'll join us again when the ship sails next week.