The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1929. SOUTH AFRICA.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 October 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1929. SOUTH AFRICA.

An uneasy feeling has existed in the minds of British people in different parts of the Empire that the sentiments of the majority of the inhabitants of.ijhe Union of South Africa are definitely, even strongly, anti-British, 'the recent history of the country has not afforded a great deal of reason for an abatement of the suspicions they have entertained. The Great War actually tended to exaggerate racial strife in South Africa rather than to draw its peoples together, and the possibility of civil war more than once loomed large on the troubled political horizon. The spirit that then pervaded General HerLzog’a National

’ Party was frankly anti-British, and it was observed with concern that- in the years following; r, the - Arm .atice the , Nationalists gained strength' in direct I proportion to the r waning power of I, the South African, Party. At the general election-yin- 1924-the Nationalists by a coalitiqp tyith-Labour, finally overthrew the, Ministry headed' by General Smuts— Ministry which,. though , of Dutch sympathies, received ' considerable support from British'.South Africans., At the elections last June, points out un exchange,,, the National’ Party acqui^-gl^a^’jjnajowty of eight over all other” parties combined, and though the coalition witlr Labour continues it could'"rule without the support it recqives jrom this, quarter. The dominant party, in South AirH?a is therefpre avowedly Dutch, and in view of General Hertzog’s anti-British wartime activities, which included a formal demand fpr the restoration of the old Republic, fo. might be assumed that the - majority qf .South Africans—the iDutch—are in favour of secession from the Empire... A cable message recently, however, stated that owing to the resistance®that was offered by General Hertzog » motion discussed by the National Party Congress in the Orange Free State in favour of secession, ,a,s well as one in favour of the appointment only of South Africans as future Gqvernors-General, was withdrawn.. General Hertzog appealed to Afrikanders to show their intelligence and magnanimity by assisting to bridge ,the chasm between the races rather, than widen it. The attitude thus.assumed by him may come as a surprise to those who have been apprehensive.. of a-.weakening of British prestige in the Union during the EJertzog .regime, but it seems probable that a, tyrfter, ,in the Fortnightly Review, w.bq. discussed the South African question in an interesting manner, correctly -describes the position. This writer does not agree that the Nationalists are anti-British either in a personal or racial sense. They are, he states, anti-imperial and anti-Em-pire building, but mainly they are intensely pro-Afrikander, and'would prefer an independent republic outside the Empire, but would not be prepared to engage in civil war, to secure a‘ republic. This explanation of the temper of the Nationalists seems logical. They are now a powerful majority in South Africa, and the present would be a suitable time for them to express their desire for secession if they earnestly desired it. The Nationalists have made use of their political ascendancy to sweep away most of the tariff preferences' which had been granted to British manufacturers to fly a new Union Jack, to negotiate a separate treaty with Germany, and to insist that a constitutional status has been acquired giving South Africa the abstract right of declaring neutrality in a war , in which Britain might be involvedyet we find them amenable to the suggestion of their leader that it is desirable for Dutch and British to live on friendly terms as part of the Empire Commonwealth. In view of this there seems to be a reasonable prospect that the fears that have been entertained regarding South Africa may prove unfounded, and that, as the writer in the Fortnightly Review suggests, “the secession movement in South Africa is dead, and will remain, dead as long as equality

of status within the Empire is conceded—or until the British South Africans aye converted to Republicanism.”