U.S. Support for S. Africa

Although I do not favor apartheid I would like to see an in-depth discussion of what would occur if it were eliminated. For one thing, there are violent factions among the blacks, and a free election on the basis of one person-one vote might well end up in a bloodier bath than is now reported; this is the cause of some of the current bloodshed, and suggests that stern or brutal measures are required.

We may recall that the Shah of Iran was brutal by our standards, but peoples of different races and backgrounds do not act by our standards. No one can say that the shah’s replacement corrected brutality, yet we may be forcing the same fate upon South Africa. Is our own country so well-run that we experts can now tell just how to replace apartheid? If such solutions have been outlined, they have escaped my attention.

JOHN H. ALDRICH

Westchester