Ripple of Hope

KENNEDY HAS A 7O-MIN
MEETING WITH LUTHULI
Helicopter flight to restricted area

     SENATOR ROBERT KENNEDY had a meeting lasting 70 minutes with ex-Chief Albert Luthuli, banned leader of the banned African National Congress, today after a dawn flight by helicopter from Durban to Mr. Luthuli's home in the Groutville mission reserve, 40 miles from Durban.
     Senator Kennedy was accompanied by Mrs. Kennedy. The two travelled in one helicopter and a special correspondent of Sapa and a photographer from the United States Information Service in another.
     The helicopter landed in a football field about half a mile from the former chief's home and officials of the Bantu Administration and Development Department drove Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy to Mr. Luthuli's house.
     The senator had asked the Government’s permission to see Mr. Luthuli, and this was granted. The flight took 35 minutes each way.
     At the house, Senator and Mrs. Kennedy shook hands with Mr. Luthuli. Mrs. Luthuli was not present. She was at her husband’s farm in Swaziland.
     There was a small crowd of Natives, mainly children, at the soccer field when the helicopter carrying the senator and his wife roared overhead and descended, and they scattered in fright.
     Soon after he arrived, Senator Kennedy and Mr. Luthuli went for a stroll down a shady dirt road, engaged in earnest conversation.
     The former Chief, who is restricted under the Suppression of Communism Act, looked fit. He was smartly dressed in a dark brown suit, white shirt and grey tie and he walked with an alert step.
     He is 65 and has six children, one of whom—a daughter—is a doctor practising at Pinetown, near Durban.
     Senator Kennedy presented Mr. Luthuli with an illustrated biography of President John F. Kennedy, a. record of the late President Kennedy's speeches and a transistorised record player.
     Senator Kennedy asked to see the Nobel Peace Prize which Mr. Luthuli was awarded in 1960.
     Mr. Luthuli had difficulty in finding the key to the showcase in which the Nobel Medal was kept, but found it later and he showed it to Senator and Mrs. Kennedy. Soon afterward he served tea for them in his lounge.
     Later Senator Kennedy, asked what he thought of Mr. Luthuli, said: ‘He is one of the most impressive men I have met in my travels round the world. He has compassion and understanding and tolerance. He was most impressive to me.'

     Ordered back
     Senator Kennedy said he had discussed with Mr. Luthuli problems of the United States and the future of the African people in South Africa.
     During Senator Kennedy's visit, over-eager photographers who rushed forward into the 'forbidden territory' were shouted at by policemen, who ordered them back on to the tarmac road.
     A Native photographer who protested that he was within his rights to enter 'Bantu territory' was told he would be charged unless he obeyed.
     Before leaving, Senator Kennedy broke away from the official party and shook hands with Indian and Native bystanders. – (Sapa and T.A.S.R.)