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.”

In August 1941 all the outgoing mail from the branch office was seized without explanation by the censorship authorities. Later that year, the minister of the interior issued an order to seize all the organization’s publications in the country. At ten o’clock one morning, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrived at the branch office with trucks for the purpose of removing all the literature. Brother Phillips checked the order and saw that it was not strictly in accord with the regulations. The books were not listed by name, which was required according to the Government Gazette.

Brother Phillips then asked the CID officers to wait while he contacted a lawyer and made an urgent application to the supreme court for an interdict to restrain the minister of the interior from seizing the literature. His application was successful. By noon the interdict was obtained, and the police left empty-handed. Five days later, the minister withdrew the order and paid our legal fees.

[Box/​Pictures on page 88, 89]

A Faithful Example

GEORGE PHILLIPS

BORN 1898

BAPTIZED 1912

PROFILE Became a regular pioneer in 1914. Served as branch overseer in South Africa for nearly 40 years and died faithful in 1982.

GEORGE PHILLIPS was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. He started pioneering in 1914, at the age of 16. In 1917 he was imprisoned for maintaining Christian neutrality. In 1924, Brother Rutherford personally invited him to serve in South Africa. He said, “George, it may be for a year, or it may be for a little longer.”

This was George’s impression on arriving in South Africa: “Compared to Britain, conditions were altogether different and everything connected with the work was so much smaller. At that time, there were only 6 in the full-time service and not more than about 40 doing a little service work. Our territory embraced everything from the Cape to Kenya. How was it going to be covered and an effective witness given in one year? Why worry about that? The thing to do was to get going, use the instruments at hand, and leave the results to Jehovah.

“South Africa is a complex country with many different races and languages. It was a real joy getting to know these different peoples. Organizing the work in such a vast field and laying the necessary foundations on which to build were no easy tasks.

“Down through the years, Jehovah’s loving provision for all my needs, his protection, guidance, and blessing have ever been abundantly manifest. I have learned that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’ and that if one would remain in ‘the secret place of the Most High,’ one must stick close to his organization and work hard at doing his work in his way.”​—1 Tim. 6:6, King James Version; Ps. 91:1.