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Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1931, Page 4

Thk decision df a majority of the South African Labour Party to break off their political association with the National* isU marks the end of a compact vehich has, for good or evil, dominated the course of public affairs in the Union for the past six years. But the marvel is not that the famous pact has broken down after six years’ continuance, but that if has lasted so long. For, as the leaders of the two contracting parties have often frankly admitted, the allies had very little in common. The Labour Party, more especially after the forcible repression of the Johannesburg strike in 1922. had tended toward an extremist, not to say Communist, policy, while the Boors and Afrikanders that form the backbone of the Nationalist group abhor all form of Socialism. At the same time, while the Nationalists in those days were all for “separation,” the Labour Party, as a whole, were bent on maintaining the Imperial connection. But the Nationalists and the Labour Party, though they disagreed on most other questions, says an Exchnnge. were as one in their detestation of General Smuts and their determination to destroy him politically. Hcrtzog and the conservative Boers regarded him as a renegade and hated him as the embodiment of South African Imperialism, and the Labour Partv was resolved to take vengeance on the man who had handled the industrial crisis on the Band so vigorously and courageously in 1922. It is true that Colonel C'resswell, the nominal leader of the Labour Party, lias always been a man of well-balanced and moderate views, and, in spite of the Labour “left wingers” efforts to get rid of him, he has retained control of the situation, and is still a member of the Hertzog Cabinet. Even now the pact has been broken against his advice. But there can be little doubt that, even from Labour’s standpoint, it has outlived its usefulness. HeVtzog and the Nationality no longer clamour for “separation”—in fact, Hertzog has renounced republicanism altogether; and at the same time the moderate section of the Labour Party which Crosswell has alwavs represented profess a. policy which need not permanently estrange it from Hertzog. on the one hand, or Smuts on the other. Tt i- not likely that the traditional host l 'itv between the Smuts Party and the old-fa.shioned Boers will die out for sour" considerable the tone a don ted bv Hertzog since his return from the Imperial Conference suggests a possible realignment of political part'os in South Africa which ma% conflict most seriouslv in future with the hopes and aspirations of Labour.