No title {Arrest} Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #493)

major sat at the back of the car. I had been carrying a report of my discussions in Durban. As we returned I unobtrusively slipped this report between the seats. It was a stroke of luck that the police never found it. Had they done so many more people would have been arrested and prosecuted. We were locked up in separate cells. Naturally I was quite upset. I realised that the police had been tipped off about my whereabouts and had been aware of the fact that I was in Durban. For weeks before my return the Security Branch had thought that I was back in the country.They worked on the assumption that upon my return to the country I would go to Groutville to submit a report to Chief Luthuli. I was informed of this on my arrival in Durban and Chief Luthuli had warned that I should exercise great care in visiting Stanger as police activities clearly indicated that they expected me. Despite this I felt that on this occasion the police were working on definite information and that someone had betrayed. Who was it? Could it be someone in Durban? Someone from Johannesburg? A person in the movement? Or a close friend of the family? Speculation without facts is futile and soon the mental and physical exhaustion, coupled with the shock of disaster and disappointment put me to sleep. By the morning I had partly recovered and I braced myself for the new challenges which had been thrust upon me. During the afternoon Sgt. Forster escorted me to his office where I found ex warrant officer Truter and the major waiting for me. Truter had been perhaps the best Crown witness in the Treason Trial and had explained the policy of the ANC accurately and faithfully and created a favourable impression among the accused and members of the defence team. We greeted