SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 301, 17 December 1912, Page 4

SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS.

Moet people who take any interest in Imperial politics will be relieved to learn that the resignation of Mr Botha is after all only a tactical expedient. As we have already explained, the Botha Cabinet has been torn by dissensions between 'the Premier and his "moderate" colleagues on the one hand, and the violently self-assertive Boer element headed by General Herzog on the other. Botha has always been anxious to avoid racial strife, either in Parliament or in the country; but Heraog and his followers have done their best to foment it, and to perpetuate the unhappy memories of the wvir. A few months ago, as a result of this oanstant conflict .between the two parties, Bobha's position became impossible, and he threatened to resign. This danger was averted for the time by a temporary reconstruction of the Cabinet. Since then, however, (ieneral Heraog, a thoroughly representative specimen of the old-style Boer of Kruger's day, ignorant, obstinate, narrow-minded, a-nd intensely patriotic—has caused incessant trouble by forcing racial controversies and prejudices to the front, and to free himself from an intolerable burden Botha has now been compelled to resign. But as he has a large majority in the Union Assembly behind him, the Governor-General could not invite Herzog or anybody else but the ex-Premier to form a Ministry. Botha has therefore been called to office again, and when he selects his new colleagues, it is fair to assume that he will secure an effective preponderance for his own views. This is probably the most satisfactory way out of the difficult position in which the "Moderates" have been placed; and it will certainly sajtisfy the '-Progressives" and the 'loyalists" in South Africa better than any alternative course. For there can be no doubt that Botha's tact, his good judgment, and his honest devotion to Imperialistic interests have done more than anything else to bring about a peaceful settlement of affairs in South Africa; and his retirement at this juncture, involving, as it might, the surrender of Parliamentary control to the Herzog faction, would be nothing less than a national calamity.