BOTHA'S POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 925, 19 September 1910, Page 5

BOTHA'S POLICY.

SOUTH AIiIICANNATIONAL,; PARTY. Speakingi. at- Pretoria: on. June 14/ General Botha made '-a "de'claratioh,;bi policy. He said the. time'for silence' had passed.' There, was no. other ;way possible than :to form • a Government , from the • "Govern-: ments already .'existing. ■'Other, /steps would, have beeii most fatal to.. Soutbi Africa, Experience, had shown that -a coalition was .. the. weakest, form of, GOv'ernmerit,' and [-was" only practicable' when other ways were' impossible. . The Premier said he Dr. Jameson's object of continuing in the spirit- of the' Con- ; vention. He thought the time.had come for starting a cl§'an'sheet. He hoped that the old party.organisations, especially,his own, would be dissolved and amalgamate into a great party, both, broad and wide principles, named the South.African Na-: tional party. General Botha then vread a manifesto dwelling on the varied questions confronting -the .Government.-. loremost among thes„e was the task'of jwelding ,the- different into one great'people, recognising that parties 1 should be formed on-'principles. A- party .should do its utmost (to promote the spirit of .union, 1 applying .this ' sympathetic ...treatment..; to natives - and. coloured persons'. r It, should also ■ aim at the. encouragement - of:, the. white population, the prevention: of,.Asiatic ' immigration, a.. broad_ policy, while bearing in mind; the heeds of workers and the duty of the; Empire in regard to defence, the : development of industries and' mining, land settlement, the encouragement of.; capital, and the opening up of foreign"'.markets; That was a programme on vr v hich.. there could be no sections. The protection of the British Hag was of the greatest import; ance, and the ties..with the. Mother Country must be strengthened. . General Botha proceeded'to detail the Government's policy of'internal'development, remarking . that the education policy must be"acceptable to all. He appealed to all to help in preventing South Africa from falling back into narrow-mindedness; any one who dared to call from Death's Valley the skeleton of the unhappy/ past would bo the enemy of; South Africa and a greater enemy of the Empire.

HERTZOGISM

: DUTCH AND ENGLISH. '. At a recent meeting at Johannesburg, the speakers warned their hearers against "iiertzogism," maintaining that it threatened ~to spread everywhere if •unchecked, which would, meau the enforcing •of the Dutch language,- not only in the Free State, but throughout '.< South Africa, in Union as well as'in provincial affairs. Questioned in June last regarding tho policy of General Hertzog, constituting Dutch and English as, compulsory dual media of instruction, General Botha said: "Wo are in favour of teaching the child 1 through the medium of its methor tonguo as far' as possible, and of carrying out this principle even at greator expense to the State."