SOUTH AFRICAN DUTCH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 71, 24 March 1910, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN DUTCH.

AMALGAMATION OP TTNIONS. PRETORIA, March 23. At the Congress of the Het Yolk (the Dutch . political organisation of the Transvaal) in Pretoria, the Premier (Mr Louis Botha) advised the broadest possible basis, so that every South African, of whatever nationality, might become a member. ' _ Mr. Botha, in his speech, made no men. tion of a coalition. The Het Yolk adopted the resolution empowering the committee of the organisation to seek amalgamation with other political organisations, with a view U. the Het Yolk covering the whole of the South African Union. It seems clear that all hope of forming a Coalition Ministry as the first Government of the new union of South Africa has been abandoned. Such an issue to the drawn-out negotiations between the Progressives and the "Dutch" parties has for months been seen in South Africa to be inevitable (says the London "Telej graph's" correspondent). The proposal that a Coalition Ministry should inaugurate the work of the South African j "Union was by no means received with un- I mixed satisfaction in all quarters. Perhaps the best thing that could be said i about it was that the suggested amalgamation would offer convincing proof of the determination of all parties loyally to work together from the outset for the good of the union. But of tin's the union itself is the best proof, and loyalty is no man's monopoly. It would no doubt have, been in some ways pleasanter ii' party rivalries could have been obliterated during the time of the Prince of Wales' coming stay in South Africti for the purpose of opening the first Union Parliament. But, as practical men, the responsible heads of the existing Governments in the sub-continent have realised that if. as for the timo seems inevitable, the line of. political cleavage there cannot be other than racial, no real good could bs done by a sham coalition. Such a make-believe' reconciliation would not merely have wasted time: it might also have cast a tinge of insincerity over the inauguration of the Union, which Afrikanders of i all shades of feeling would have deplored. But far more cogent reasons against any j coalition are that, for the purposes oi party government, an efficient Opposition is almost .as necessary as an efficient Ministerial p«vF, and , that such an amalgamation as was proposed would ! have denuded the first South African Parliament of that volume of steady and j responsible criticism of which it will then stand in need more than at any subse- | quent time. .... • . , ' J