‘Only a liberal of high-sounding words?’ Margaret Ballinger's liberalism and her relationship with South African liberals, 1926–1968

In the 1950s young and impat ien t l iberals accused Margare t Ballinger, at tha t stage South Afr ica 's mos t p rominen t liberal, of being too conservat ive . They accused her of bel ieving tha t h igh-sounding words and phrases were sufficient for a person to be a good l iberal and opponent of apar theid . This was an ironic turn about: until the 1930s the boot had been on the other foot and it had been Marga re t who had accused South African l ibera l ism of the same failings. By an analysis of M a r g a r e t ' s poli t ical ph i losophy and re la t ionsh ip wi th her fe l low l iberals this art icle will explain the complexi ty and ambigui t ies of her l iberal ism, and look at her opposi t ion to racia l and polit ical in tolerance and oppress ion in South Africa. Margare t Ballinger (n~e Hodgson) was born on 11 J a n u a r y 1894 in Glasgow, Scotland, and in 1904 she emigra ted with her pa ren t s to South Africa where they set t led in Port Elizabeth. Here she spent the last yea rs of her childhood in a pol i t ical ly-conscious family, suppor t ive of Cape l iberal ism. I ts pr inciples of equal i ty before the law, no colour discr iminat ion, polit ical to lerance and the r ights of the individual, s t rongly influenced M a r g a r e t ' s values and gave shape to her polit ical beliefs. 1 I t was , however , M a r g a r e t ' s associa t ion wi th the wel l -known l iberal his tor ian, W M Macmillan, f irst as a s tudent at Rhodes Univers i ty and then as a collegue at the Univers i ty of the Wi t wa t e r s r and (Wits), which