Soon it was decided to publish The Watchtower in Afrikaans. Although the brothers did not realize it then, that was a timely decision in view of future events in Europe. A Linotype and a folder were installed. The first issue appeared on June 1, 1940.

Up to this point, the brothers had received the Dutch Watchtower from the Netherlands for Afrikaans readers, since the two languages are similar. But in May 1940, because of Hitler’s invasion of Netherlands, the branch suddenly closed. However, the printing of The Watchtower in Afrikaans had begun in South Africa, so the brothers did not miss any issues of the magazine. Monthly distribution of magazines went up to 17,000.

PROGRESS DESPITE CENSORSHIP

As a result of pressure from religious leaders of Christendom and the government’s alarm over our neutral stand, subscribers’ copies of The Watchtower and Consolation were seized by the censorship authorities in 1940. An official announcement was made banning these publications. Shipments of magazines and literature from overseas were seized on arrival.

Nevertheless, the brothers still received their spiritual food on time. A copy of The Watchtower in English always found its way to the branch office, where it was set and printed. George Phillips wrote: “While the ban was on, we had . . . the most marvelous evidence of Jehovah’s loving care and protection over his people. We never missed a single issue of The Watchtower. Many a time only one copy of an issue would get through. Sometimes it was a subscriber in one of the Rhodesias [now Zambia and Zimbabwe] or in Portuguese East Africa [now Mozambique] or on a lonely farm in South Africa or a visitor from a boat touching at Cape Town that would supply what was needed.”

[Picture on page 87]

First “Consolation” and “The Watchtower” in Afrikaans