ALEXANDER CASE STIRS WIDE RESPONSE
The Alexander Defence Committee of West Germany, which has been waging an international campaign in behalf of Dr. Neville Alexander and ten co-defendants, now serving sentences ranging from five to ten years as political prisoners in South Africa, reports a wide response to its efforts. It has been collecting funds for an appeal which will be heard March 2,
While most of the contributions have come from West Germany where Dr. Alexander is widely known for his -brilliant work at Tiibingen University, sizeable sums have come from England, and Norway. An excellent beginning has been made in the United States, and places as distant as Japan have been heard from,
The Committee reports that it has been. able to meet the immediate costs of legal preparations for the appeal and that it is now turning its attention to the needs of the families of the victims who are in dire circumstances.
The. appeal is scheduled to open March 2 and may run for several weeks. It is based on gross irregularities in the trial even under the Nazi-like code of Verwoerd's apartheid government,
Considerable significance is attached to the outcome of the hearing. Just as the Alexander case established a precedent for the subsequent handling of the Nelson Mandela trial, so a victory in the Alexander case could open the way for contests in other convictions of this kind. There is no doubt that the prosecution will . fight tooth and nail for a decision upholding the convictions.
Dr. Alexander, who is one of South Africa's outstanding intellectuals, was charged, together with ten co-defendants, including four women, with "plotting" to commit "sabotage." Held under the
infamous 90-day law, some of them suffered torture.
They were convicted April 15, 1964, and sentenced to prison for terms ranging from five to ten years.
The men were sent to Robben Island, South Africa's version of a Nazi concentration camp. There they have suffered abominable indignities. Assaulted by a warder, Dr. Alexander was reported to have sustained an injury to his ear drum,
Most of the. political prisoners held in this hell. hole are put to work in the rock quarries and returned at night to confinement in chill, concrete-lined cells. In a report smuggled out of Robben Island *Lsee World Outlook February 12], the food is described as "pig's diet." According to the same source, some of them, includ- Ang Nelson Mandela and Neville Alexander, are kept in isolation like "wild animals. ;
‘The report said the rumor among the inmates is that these internationally known figures are compelled to break stones "which are brought by lorries." . Financial contributions can be sent to the British Alexander Defence Committee. The committee's secretary is Mrs. Connie Kirkby, 2? Thursley House, Holmewood Gardens, London, S.W.2.
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