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"Never before in the history of South Africa have the national leaders acted so swiftly and with complete oneness of purpose in their determination to beat back the fascist attack on the lives and liberties of the people of this country," said Dr. Y. M. Dadoo, President of the Transvaal Indian Congress, in an interview with The Guardian.
"The leaders realise full well the disastrous consequences which would follow if the Nationalist Government were allowed to go through with the Suppression of Communism Bill. South Africa would be turned into a concentration camp; her people would be subject to the ruthless tyranny of a Gestapo.
"The people are prepared to fight to the last - they are not prepared to allow the torch of freedom to be wrested from their hands and stamped out under the jackboot of apartheid tyranny. Rather than let this happen they will sacrifice all they have.
"The Government must be warned that this Bill will not and cannot crush the demand of the people for freedom - it cannot change the course of history.
"The Nationalists will have to bear full responsibility for the holocaust they are letting loose on the country. They will have to face the bar of history as Hitler and Mussolini did," Dr.Dadoo went on.
"The people remember the innocent victims of the Nazi gas chambers. And the memory of the slaughter of men, women and children on Freedom Day in South Africa, people who were killed for no other crime than that they strove for freedom, is fresh in our minds.
"We remember, too, and are grateful for the triumphant victory of the soldiers of freedom over the evil forces in Europe which attempted to build up a fascist empire on false race theories.
"The African National Congress has given the clarion call to action. June 26 may well be the great and historic struggle which will be the outstanding landmark in the history of our battle for freedom.
"For the first time in the history of Africa, the African, Indian and Coloured peoples, aided by democratic Europeans - the overwhelming majority of the people of South Africa - will give concrete expression of their united opinion by staying away from work.
"The Nationalists think that by introducing this Bill they will put an end to the just demand of the people for freedom. How wrong they are! The battle is just beginning:
"MALAN CANNOT SUCCEED WHERE HITLER FAILED!"