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14th Marsh, 1964 Dear -^ili, You will find enclosed the following: 1 An copy of the Memorandum that ^lien Heilman drew up, giving a history of the ^'und. i-his may be too long for your purposes, and you may want to shorten it. 2. The financial statements for the years ending 1962 and 1963. We have not yet got a statement for the situation to date. As soon as I have this will send it to you - probably within the next week. It will indicate that we have already spent more on legal defence than we did in the two predeeding years together. 3. A near—copy of a ltter that went to Danon ^olxins, covering the schedule attanched to it. 1he letter gives an account of the types of charges we had and the exigencies (what a gorgeous word) we worked with, under, by or from \\ I will be doing tc.is week for you a table as nearly accurate as possible of the cases handled before Juhy last year, giving number of cases, charges results, ^ut the old records are not wildly accurate or very complete. This type of t ing will automatically give an idea in the increase of cases. I will also get out some sort of estimated budget for future work. One heli of a job that will be. I mean, do we do do we not expct a swoop on alx Liberals this yeqr - and ■‘•"rogs next ?? II he amounts received and spent are given in the two finaicial statements enclosed. Do you want more detail than that on amounts received and spent ? Please let me snow. t-. , Also enclosed are the newsletters. I thin* tnat is all there were. It will have to be, as we have not other copies here. You will be delighted to know that a new one will be coming out soon. has copies of All the statements and accounts of ili^ treatment we had here. ^ould you please get them from her if you want copies. Perhaps she or someone could help get copies typed out. Particularly if she knows what it is for. If you want to ask me for any more or let me know what else you need, Sheila has a cover address for me. She can post any letters you may want to write, tp me. If my suufx is too detailed, forgive me. ^ut I tought it better to let you have too much, which you can condense if you want to, than* too little. * Please let the money come '/QUICKLY. I have sleepless nights over it all, Hope you are will, and Margaret and the children. Love to them. AFRICAN LABOUR NEWS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS APS/92 20 November, 1965. For immediate Release ICFTU contributes £11,000 to south African Defence and Aid Fund; In pursuance of its outstanding policy to help the victims of the ruthless apartheid regime in South Africa, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has made a further contribution of igjci,000 to the South African Defence and Aid Fund, i This latest donation brings the total ICFTU contribution towards funds for victims of apartheid to £1 1 ,130. The Defence and Aid Fund was established to help South Africans persecuted for their belief in human dignity and their opposition to the apartheid policy of the South African Government. The Fund has helped to provide legal defence for the accused and in relieving distress among their families. issued by the publicity & Public Relations Department of the ICFTU African Regional Organisation (AFRO). AFRO—ICFTU Offset 85 Simpson Street, Ehute Metta, Lagos. P. M B. 1038, Phone 43057 & 43955 Telegrams: Interconfcd Ebute-Metta. DEFENCE AND AID FUND CHRISTIAN ACTION Chairman: THE REVEREND CANON L. JOHN COLLINS 2 AMEN COURT, LONDON, E.C.4 Telephone: C IT y 3747/6869 25th November 1965 Dear My wife, Diana Collins, has just returned from South Africa where she has been visiting the Defence and Aid Committees and seeing something of their work and of_the difficulties they are up against. She will be making a report of her visit to a meeting arranged by Christian Action at Church House, Westminster on Monday December 13th at 7 p.m. My wife was in South Africa for over five weeks and I feel that you, as a Sponsor of the Defence and Aid Fund, may be glad of this opportunity to hear at first hand something of what is going on out there. I write, therefore, to invite you to join us at this meeting. If you would care to let me know how many tickets you would like to have I would be happy to have them sent to you. It would be very helpful if you could let me have an early reply as the accommodation at Church House is not unlimited. Yours sincerely, L.John Collins. ^■U,V\xK ALEX. HEPPLE, SPE 5064 6, Vale Rise, Golders Green, London, N, W. 11 31st. March 1966 The General Secretary, Trades Union Congress, Congress House, Great Russell Street, LONDON. W. C. 1 Dear Mr. Woodcock, THE SOUTH AFRICAN DEFENCE & AID FLUID. On the 18th. March 1966 the South African Government issued a proclamation declaring the Defence and Aid Fund to be an unlawful organisation in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act. A simultaneous statement by the State Dep artment of Information attempted to justify the ban in a mixture of allegations and insinuations, purporting to show that the Fund was engaged in a communist conspiracy and that the major part of it3 receipts were used to finance the political activities of the banned African National Congress and Communist Party. In view of the fact that I was chairman of the Bouth African Defence and Aid Fund from its inception until Sep tember 1964, I feel it incumbent upon me to state that the allegations are absolutely false. I write this letter to you because it was my privilege as chairman of the Fund to receive from you at various times generous contributions collected from your_affiliated unions. I wish to place on record that all monies donated by your organisation were used solely for the purposes for which the Fund was estab lished, vis. to provide legal aid for persons arrested and/o charged with political offences and for the welfare of their dependants. Among those helped were a large number of non-white trade unionists; many more were workers who were denied access to trade union membership because of legal obstacles in discriminatory labour legislation. Applications for assistance.were carefully scrutinised* administrative exoenseg were stricxly limited,,yana respon sible voluntary committees authorised expenditure in accor dance with the provisions of the constitution. At no time wa3 any money used for the benefit of any political organi sation® or political activity. continued/ x V 1' The General Secretary, T* U. C. 31st. March 1966 2 I need hardly remind you that the Suppression of Communism Act is so widely drawn that the Minister has the power to outlaw any organisation which displeases his ruling National Party. In using this power against the Defence and Aid Fund the Minister hao further reduced the already severely limited rights of the non-white majority. If you so wish, you may convey the contents of this ^e.ter to your affiliated unions, particularly those which so sympathetically took the trouble to raise money on behalf of the Defence and Aid Fund* As you see from the address at the head of this letter, x am now living in London, where you can contact me in case of need. With very best wishes, Yours sincerely, ALEX. HEPPLE. ALEX. HEPPLE, 6, Vale Rise, Solders Green, London, N, W, 11, England. 31st. Larch 1966 The General Seer tary, I* C. F. T. U., 37-41, rue Montagne aux Herbes Potag&res, BRUSSELS. 1. Belgium. Dear Mr. Becu, BAII1.ILG OP TUB SOUTH AFRICAN DEFENCE & AID PULP. As you will recall, I was the chairman of the South African Defence and Aid Fund from its inception in i960 until September 1964. During that period it was my pleasure to receive from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions several remittances, amounting in all to something like £10,000. Now the South African Government has proclaimed the Fund to be an unlawful organisation. It has done this in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act. Simultaneously, cne otate Department of Information has issued a statement wuicn, by a mixture of allegations a d insinuations, attempts ^o establish that the Funds was engaged in a communist con spiracy and was using contributions to finance the political activities of the banned African National Congress and Communist Party. In the circumstances I feel it incumbent upon me to place on record that these allegations are completely false. All monies received by the Fund were used solely for the purposes set out in the constitution, viz. to provide legal aid for pjuqnaisK persona arrested and/or charged with political oifences and for the welfare of their dependants. Among those helped were a large number of non—white workers; some were members of trade unions but many more were not because of the numerous discriminatory labour laws which denied Africans access to registrable unions and made non-racial labour organisation impossible. The affairs of the Defence and Aid Fund were at all times properly conducted. Applications for assistance were carefully scrutinised, administrative expenses were kept to /continued The General Secretary, I.C.F.T.U. 31st. I larch 1966 2 a iainlraum, and voluntary committees aubhorised expenditure strictly within the scope of the constitution.