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Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1930, Page 2

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SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS.

The white women of South Africa, a filer 22 years of mild agitation, are at last to gain the franchise, the Senate having passed the Bill on May 13 The difficulty hitherto has been tlie colour question. Successive Parliaments have hesitated to confer the

franchise oil European women only, lest they should be creating a new colour bar. The objected still more to enfranchised coloured and native women, lest they should increase the danger of ultimately swam,ping the European vote. But this session General Hortzog, acting in his private capacity, introduced a Women’s Franchise Bill, whereby the vote was

to be given to all European women above tlie age of 21 (says a writer in. the Melbourne Argus).

The marches and counter-marches in the Assembly in. lelatiou to this measure- have been very remarkable. The Prime Minister knew that tlie very idea .of a woman’s vote was anathema to tlie large majority of the Nationalist Party. Accordingly lie intimated that in the House every mail should be freed from the domination of the caucus,.

But this did Hot solve all the difficulties, many of which were inherent in the form of the Bill. There were, of course,. these of both parties who have a sort of fundamentalist disbelief ill. women’s votes. There were others who, while believing in the principle, thought it dangerous to introduce throughout South ,Africa the principle of adult suffrage. It is true that in the Transvaal and Free State provinces there is to-day white male .adult suffrage, but in the Claps and Natal thfiro is a .property qualification, a wage qualification, and a trifling education test, which have had the effect of keeping; down the numbers of,the native vote.

General Mertzog now proposes in the Cape and Natal to give European women the vote at the age of 21 without qualification of any kind, and thus white women in those provinces will b ( < in a more favoured position than white men an anomaly a j ;ib.i is generally co'iillemned. But in a Bill which is full of anomalies there-was at least provision''for.'white women’s suffrage, and after many

hours in committee and a prolonged debate on tlie third reading, during ’I bob the fortunes of the measure swayed to and fro in a remarkable degree, the Bill was passed by tlie Assembly by a majority of 38, and by the middle of August next year 480.000 European women in South Africa will have been registered as voters,

The effect, is rather more than to double the .white vote :. to-' reduce. the coloured vote to an uuui’ ( portaiit element, and the native vote in the Cape to a still les important fraction of the total. As to the effect on parties none can foresee, though the Nationalists believe that they xvii) gain a dozen seats from the South African Pairtv. The greater probability is•j/hat: ifetbe'.Jaibour Party is reorganised under ‘effective leadership it will gain recruits through the women’s vote from the South African. Party j in the towns and from the Nationalists in the country.

MeamVuile,. coloured and native opinion has been strongly critical of the . Bill as drawing a ncAv colour bar and as /being another symptom of repressive tendencies against them. Indeed, South Africa lias been passing in -recent iveeks thrugh a period of disquieting uneasiness and manifestations here and there that there is a deep-seated feeling of resentment among nativss and coloured people—but .more espcu'ally among the natives—agiinst ‘the ipireseut C'fjvernment's political activities.

Here and there have been clashes between the natives and the'police at public meetings, and, ■ what is perhaps more serious, clashes between nai)i\t.' and coloured organisations and white farmers' and village people in the country districts. The actual violence has not been on a great scale, and only a few beads have been broken, but the very infreqnen.ee of such occurrences in South Africa is a

symptom of disease, and few feel any confidence in the Government’s measures for meeting the activities of the very limited numlier of agitators who are at present in the- field. The chief measure is the so-called

of the most drastic pieces of legislation that has appeared before a ParRiotous Assemblies Bill, perhaps one iiament in the Brjjtish Empire for 50 years. It places arbitrary power in the hands of the Minister of Justice, who may prohibit' at bis own sweet Avill any public meeting if be considers that “feeling of hostility between the European residents of the Union on one hand, and any other section of the residents of the Union on the other,” are likely to be engendered by such a mooting, j If be considers that any person, bv up,nearing at such a. meeting, is likely to cause a disturbance, he may order that individual to quit the c:s----1 viofc, and tp reside permanently »t. some other part of the country. He may suppress any foreign newspaper entering th c country if he thinks its comments on South African affairs 1 v-re cialculated to engemder feelings of hostility, and. so far as the Smith African press is concerned, Iffi may prohibit the publication on tV same grounds of any article, cartoon, or drawing. In the event of offences committed under the Act, he is empowered to deport any non-South African-I'horn resident. Protests in Parliament have been .unavailing. The excuses offered ' for the measure is that the law courts have proved to' be powerless to deal with the agitator who proaoho-s subversive doctrines, and the measure lias passed through committee by Kme majorities, the protests of the Opposition having been greatly weakened in effect by tlTe defection of the Natal members, who for the most I part have given the Government their support in the belief that the native agitator is a grave threat to the peace of South Africa. Most moder-ate-minded men are inclined to the vnw that the Bill will create the very monster which it hopes to destroy, and it is certainly remarkable that , public opinion should remain entirely | aoetnetic as if see- powers "i-vyr in | the hands of Mr Pirow which Dies-' solini himself might envy.