The Dominnion. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1910. NEW SOUTH AFRICA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 858, 2 July 1910, Page 4

The Dominnion. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1910. NEW SOUTH AFRICA.

Uniform administration has beeii established in South Africa, and the new Prime Minister the other day outlined the/policy he and his Ministers will pursue—if the ' electors return them to power—to ensure peace .and bring prosperity to the country.' The speech delivered in Pretoria by General Botha may be regarded as somewhat premature, for the reason that he' and his Ministry have not yet obtained the approval of ,the South African electors. Until the general elections the Union Ministry will probably be engaged in pursuits other than developing and carrying into effect any new and far-reaching programme for South Africa. Their immediate function's will be providing and setting to work the machinery of government. The questions of position, pay, and promotion, tho coalescing of the colonial officials,'will require infinite care and tact, if the susceptibilities of both British and Dutch are to remain unwounded. Members and presidents of permanent commissions have also to be appointed, as well_ as judges and provincial administrators. General Botha will have no lack of claimants after office and emoluments, and his difficulty will be—if his declared desire for peace between the races, is else than mere platitude—to fairly apportion his patronage to British and to" Dutch. If General Botha is over-ruled in making the Union appointments, as he was in forming his by the representatives of Krugerism, then the outlook for that portion of the British Empire is dark indeed.

The situation is not without peril, seeing that if wrong is done now the effects of that wrong will not be obliterated for generations. With every desire in .the world to do full justice to General Botha's good intentions, no one can possibly forget the men in the background, the upholders of ttie old pastoral system, the class which (with the natives), ill the two ex-Bepublics, contributed 18 per cent, of the revenue, to administer the 82 per cent, contributed by the progressive industrial community. In that class lies the danger to South Africa. With Hertzoq at their head, their formulae may seem liberal, but the leopard does not readily change his spots, and the principles of these reactionaries remain, probably unaltered: just where they were when President Steyn denounced capital at Bloemfontein and President Kruger unmercifully bled the capitalists at Pretoria. In spite of his antique supporters of the .veld, General Botha has proclaimed an enlightened, progressive, satisfactory policy. It is one which might have been framed by Dr. Jameson. Everything, however, is dependent upon two things; the first, whether General Botha or ■ Dr. Jameson will head tho polls in October; and, second, if successful then, in what manner General Botha will give effect to his policy. With respect to one item in his programme—the sympathetic treatment of natives—he has begun well. Among the first of his acts as Prime Minister of the Union was to order the release - of Dinizulu. The Natal Government, in later years, seemed lo have endirely lost the confidence of its vast native population, and this action of General Botha should do much to restore the confidence not only of the Zulus, but also of all other native tribes. A master stroke it would bo for him to win the abiding trust of South Africa's six millions of natives.

The encouragement of the white population, ' the prevention of Asiatic immigration, a broad educational policy acceptable to all, the development of industries,' mining and land settlement, the encouragement of capital, and the opening of foreign markets are other planks in General Botha's political platform. In the meantime they call for little commcnt: policies without Bills behind therti invariably possess considerable fluidity. Reference may, however, bo made to the formal assurance that encouragement is to be extended to capital. Notwithstanding certain, wild, and not always coherent, denunciations of capital, there arc few instances on record where its introduction, either to tho individual or tho community, has boon aggressively discouraged. In the Transvaal; in the halcyon days of Krugensm, the Rand capitalists were depicted in lurid colours indeed, and, by a process of logic possible onl} to Mil. Kituanit and his numerous disciples, were represented as the banc of the country. Said capitalists were compelled to pay the piper handsomely, while President and Volksraad vigorously and joyfully called tho tune. General Botha knows better. In a recent message to a London newspaper he stated that what South Africa will need most in the coming years is capital, moro capital, and &till more

capital. In striking contrasts his message was an address by ex-Presi-dent Steyn, delivered only two months-ago, in which-he preached anew the doctrine that capital was the curse of South Africa. It was, he declared, a case of capital versus the nation. The Cape 'Times. responded: "Mr. Steyn's-vision of a capitalistic combinc controlling the gold, diamond, and coal mines, as well as the railways, the harbours, and the press of South Africa is more worthy o£ the heated brain of a scared Collectivist crank than of a statesman attempting a serious forecast of'his country."