THE "NATIONALIST BIBLE"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 265, 5 August 1919, Page 10

THE "NATIONALIST BIBLE"

WHAT GENERAL HERTZOG'S PARTY STANDS FOR

INTERESTING EXTRACTS (By a South African Correspondent to the "Morning Post.") 111 moving the deletion from the South A'frican Union Estimates of tho diminutive vote of .1:8;"),000 towards the upkeep of the Royal Navy, Mr. C. 'I'. 11. Wilcocks, tho Nationalist member for Winburg, Oraugo Ji'reo State, quoted in the Houso of Assembly a paragraph from what is familiarly known as tho "Nationalist Bible." Tho title of the | book is "Republicans nnd Sinners, and it is dedicated to "President Wilson, tho Idealist." Tho dedication is without authority. The paragraph read by Mr. Wilcocks indicates tlio mtransigoaiit and vitriolic spirit of the book. It reads as follows:— . . „ "Tho truth of tho matter is this. So far from South Africa having ever needed England's protection against a foreign enemy, the only foreign enemy South Africa has ever had that was beyond her powers of resistance was England hersolf; and on the very first occasion that England was confronted by a foreign enemy that was not ours and was not a small nation, but powerful enough to threaten lier existence, we wero called upon to sacrifice our sons for her protection." Tho book is very popular among the Nationalists. In vioff of this, and or General Hertzog's mission to Europe, and also of.Mr. Tielman Rooss vigorous Republican propaganda m. the Transvaal, with a general election in sight,, it is well that those who are interested m the welfare of tho Union of South Africa should know what sort of a gospel tho "Bible" proclaims, and what revelations are contained in it. A brief commentary will also, it is hoped, bo of Ilse ' Tlio first impression that tho book leaves upon one is that qf the escape at explosive pressure of long-suppressed steam. In spirit it is the exact antithesis of tho real Bible. Its gospel is one of hectic hatred. It is much more than meditativo spleen. It is a homily of hate directed solely against all things British. Neither logic nor good will find much place in tho took. Its strong points are invective and venom. Tho writer maligns tho nnmo of Loyalist by making it his 110111 de plume. The printers* are the Nationalist - Press, of Cane Town. Mr. Wilcocks, who is of British origin, but 011 tho paternal sido only, did South Africa, a public service unconsciously by quoting the paragraph lie did front tho "Nationalist Bible," as it lets us know without a doubt the sort of peoplo wo have to deal with in General Hertzog s Nationalist Party. Wo have to dpal! witti an enemy in our midst-, and, as will bo apparent to all by tho attitude of tho partv in tho House of Assembly and 111 the Press, one who is in sympathy with the Hun. ' Tho paragraph quoted by Mr. Wilcocks is conspicuously omphasised in tho book by being printed 111 small caps, and it is' the only paragraph thus emphasised. So it is intended to contain tho ossenco of tho Nationalist gospel. A Nationalist Diatribe. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that no opprobrious epithet is too shameful for tho Nationalist writer to cast at ttie British. Ho calls them "Parasites who have preyed upon our vitals for a hundred years," "hypocrites," "bloodsuckers," ' "despoilers," mere "sojourners," "foreigners," "a,iiti-patriotic." "not part of a South African nation," "exiled vagabonds"; the Union Jack is a foreign (lag, and an honour conferred by tho King is called elegantly a "monkey brand." Thought of the British llag arouses tho writer to such a pitch nf incandescent heat that only in a sentence of twenty lines can 110 relievo himself of his bile in the "Nationalist Bible." .This is it (pago 23):— By tlio' consistent pursuit of that policy (tho waving of the British flag) you lliavo been enabled to drain the. country of its mineral wealth, to keep, it as tlio closo preservo and happy hunting-ground of tho foreign profit-seeker, to shape its fiscal poliey so as to choko its own" industrial development, send its raw materials overseas, so as to levy blackmail on it in payment for ocean transport, and tho accumulative trade profits of the doublo ascendins and descending gauntlet of middlemen its ■ transit had ,to run, .' going und coming, and foreign wages for the finished article, it has ultimately to purchnse back from you for its own consumption; to make it the dumping-ground for your shoddy and your brummagem, imniuno from competition, and the refuge homo of the imbeciles and undesirables 9f your own population—the more imbecile tho more desirablo in South Africa as subservient votings units to swamp tho Dutch."

This rigmarole is not easy to grasp on account of its ill-construction and punctuation; but its ii.teutioii and meaning are clear.

Then again; .on 36: "The average Eglishman in South Africa . . . goes on hie way . . . content in the midst of a people on whoso necks ho has placed the heel of tho conqueror, whose past history for tho last century is ono ghastly drama of wrong inflicted by him ... in tho land he has the impertinence to rulo." As to ruling, a Dutch Government has been in power sinco thoir Union came in 1910; and a Government dominantly Dutch is likely to be' a permanence. Tho Dutch rulo: not the British. The writer, speaking of Imperialism on page 130, 6ays: ' "The essenco of Imperialism being parasitism, parasitism is involved both in tho' relations between the "homeland" and the foreign possessions, and. in the economic life of tho possessions themselves. And it is in tho nature of corruption to spread. Tho spreading blight must bo stamped ou; or it will continue to spread." Continuing on pago 131 ho says: "Tho pocket and tho conscience: tho Subsistence of life and the mainspring of tho cleanness and nobility of life—there is tho toll that has to be paid to Imperialism. that has in subtler shapes taken the place of tlio older, cruder impositions and levies in money and kind, in military and menial, service. The invisible poison gas cloud and cholera bacillus are more deadly than the weighty stone battle-axe." These are excerpts from the ravowito text-book of tho party represented by General Hertzog and his companions in Europe. South Africa is a British possession by cession, to say nothing of conquest, and its prosperity has been mainly due to British ontorprise. But tho British—they are called English in the book —aro anathema to tho Nationalists. The British are not regarded as part of tho South African nation! In the Nationalists' eyes wo aro aliens, or to recall ICruger, Uitlaiulers! And tho Britishaliens—form two-thirds of the white population of the Union. But that it is a grave matter for such doctrines to be held by the majority of the Dutch people of South Africa, tho thing might bo looked upon as too ridiculous for words. The Nationalists claim that they form not only tho majority of tho Dutch peop'lo, but 80 per cent, of tlieui; and that "tho cream of South Africa's intellectual and social elite has ranged itself on the Nationalist side." They seem to forget Generals Botha and Smuts. Ono thing this Nationalist writer can claim to liavo done completely—ho has left nothing-unwritten that is calculated to breed racial strife and discord and to nrouso tho angry passions of tho two dominant white races.