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Patrick Duncan Jnr

I have been reading an account of my grandfather Dr A T C Slee's experiences in South Africa during the 1950's and found this account of his relationship with Patrick Duncan Jnr, editor of Contact magazine. If you have any interest in entering a section on Wikipedia about my grandfather and his relationship with the National Party or his experiences int WWII, I would be happy to send his memoirs to you.

Thanks

Robin Slee robin.slee@msn.com

During the week preceding my first appearance in court, I was delighted to have the opportunity of renewing my friendship with Patrick Duncan. Since we had last met, he had resigned from the Colonial Service in Basutoland, and recently taken over the editorship and publication of the Liberal Magazine 'Contact'. Now he was on a lecture tour on behalf of the National Committee of the Liberal Party and was due to speak in the City Hall on the 14th May, two days before my court appearance. For four days and nights, our sitting room became his bedroom, office and meeting place. As I remember it, this arrangement had one inconvenience, for he never seemed to need any sleep, and each night he would be engaged in animated conversation with students and others until the early hours of the morning.

Patrick assured me that he had written permission from the Magistrate for more than ten Africans to be present at his meeting, which was surprisingly well attended. Grocott's in a two column report informed the public that Professor K.D. White, a well known local personality and public speaker, presided over a Liberal Party Meeting and addressed a mixed audience, all sitting together in the body of the hall, of Africans, Indians and Europeans.!!≅

It was a most successful meeting, and of course Sergeant Diesel and his team of plain clothes constables were there to take the names and addresses of Africans, Coloureds and Indians, as well as to take notes on what was said, lest there might be a whiff of subversion. Later that night a party of nine or ten people, including two Indians (Africans were unable to come on account of the curfew) crowded our sitting room to discuss the prospects for the Liberal Party in Grahamstown. Patrick would have carried on much longer, but at midnight they all prepared to leave. As they left the house and climbed into their cars, a police car on the opposite side of the road switched on its headlights and followed them into town.

The 16th May was not only the day of my court appearance, but of Patrick's departure for Ladybrand in the Orange Free State. He had considered accompanying me to court before leaving but in view of his recent discharge from prison for defying the Government on a similar charge to mine we thought this might be seen as a provocation. Besides this P.F. O'Hagan would not have approved. So, Patrick climbed into the back of his Volkswagen Combi, which was equipped like an office, took the cover off the typewriter and asked his driver to head for Queenstown. Two days later a long letter arrived from him written 'between Queenstown and Aliwal North'. He was a born optimist and was convinced that Grahamstown would develop as one of the main centres of the Liberal Party. I had no such confidence. A great deal of this letter was devoted to persuasive arguments for asking Mrs. Pillay, an attractive young Indian woman, to accept the Chairmanship of the Party, which I was anxious to give up.

He ended the letter wishing me "good luck in your case and congratulations on your firmness." Little did he realise how I wished the whole affair would go away. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.153.209.64 (talk) 11:47, 2 June 2010 (UTC)