The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1919. THE STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 201, 25 August 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1919. THE STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the icrong that needs resistance, /'or the future in the distance, And the good that tee do.

The declarations by the Congress ot the South African party against the Republican and Separatist movement and in favour of the Union afford an opportunity for considering the political outlook in South Africa. There are four

parties in the country and the Union Parliament. There is, first, the South African party, led by General Botha. Most of it= members arc loyal Dutch, and the rest are British. The Unionists, who after the last election numbered 40 in the Assembly to the South Africans' .".-!, are British. The Nationalists, of whom J7 were, elected, are tne anti-British,

Republican, and Separatist party, and are led by General Hertzog. Labour brought up the rear with four members. During the war the Unionists in the Assembly combined with the South African party to support General Botha and give him and the Britisii Government all possible help in lighting the Germans in Africa and elsewhere. The Nationalists not only opposed the war, but contrived to use it for their own purposes, and apparently with some success. A curious feature of their leaders' manipulation ol the war was that while, they opposed participation in it, showed no desire for an Allied victory, and were convinced that Germany could not be beaten, they encouraged their followers in the belief that the Allies, by posing as the protectors of the small nationalities, were logically committed to the restoration of the independence of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. If British statesmen would not apply these ideals to their own Empire, there remained President Wilson. The South African correspondent, of the "Bound Table" says that although the defeat of Germany was a stunning shock to the Nationalists, it did not, a licet their propaganda in the country. Indeed, soon after the armistice they won a seat from the South African party, and in another constituency re-

duced their opponents' majority considerably. The Nationalists sent a deputation to put their claim for independence before the Peace. Conference, but the deputation, which was headed by General Hcrtzog, accomplished nothing.

The Nationalist movement lias two political aims—the reconstitution of the two Boer republics and the complete separation of Soutli Africa from the Britisii Empire. The leaders who went to Europe a few mouths ago actually asked Mr. Lloyd George to restore the independence of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and Mr. Lloyd George made, the only reply possible—that tho British Government could not recognise the right of a faction to break up the Union into which the white people of South Africa, had entered by their own free and deliberate choice. A Union like that of South Africa is dissoluble only by mutual consent of the parties to the contract. This impudent request was made by a party which is in a minority in the Union Assembly, and draws nearly all its members from the Free State and the north of Cape Colony. It is in a majority in the Free State, but in the Transvaal, for which it also claims to speak, it numbers four out of forty-five members. The truth is that the movement is racial, and is embittered by memories of racial wars and by the intense dislike of an old-fashioned rural patriarchal people for newcomers with modern methods and ideas." The core of the Nationalist party are. the Dutch irreconcilables, who agreed to the Peace

of Vcreeniging, but have regretted it over since. The bitterest feeling against Britain and the British in South Africa has been infused into the campai<m. In the opinion of a Nationalist writer, the British are parasites "who have preyed upon our vitala for a hundred years," "foreigners," and "hypocrites,"' and an honour conferred by the King is a "monkey brand."' The ideal of those haters is a South Africa ruled by the Dutch, in the interest of the Dutch. The people of British stock, although they number two-fifths of the population, are, in the phrase used by another South African correspondent, "to be stripped politically naked." This correspondent, who writes in the ""Christehureh Press," points out that while the British want European immigration, the Nationalists arc opposed to it, for fear it would "break the back of Africanderism by swamping the Dutch vote." They do not want a fusion of races .working for a more populous and generally moro progressive South Africa as part of the Empire, but an independent Republic or scries of Republics, in which the Boer shall rule in the Boer interest, and the old ways of life shall be retained.

It is for this fusion of races .and progress through unity that Botha aud Smuts have worked so nobly. Botha has returned from Europe to his post as Prime Minister more convinced than ever that for South Africa the only road to peace, prosperity and true nation, hood is the. road of union, racial and political. A time may be close at hand when all his strength of conviction and moral force will be required for the safety of tlic Union. 'The danger is not immediate: in the Assembly Nationalist aims have been repudiated by a majority of three to one. But a general election is on the horizon, and the Nationalists are making every effort to detach from the South African' party a sufficient number of Dutch voters to give them a majority in the Assembly. The delegation to Europe failed to impress either the Peace Conference or the British Government, but it is said that the reul aim was to influence opinion in South Africa, which it seems to have done. The "Round Table" says that the motive forces of the Nationalist movement "lie deep in the feelings and traditions of the Dutch-speaking people," and warns us that the coming election will be a critical time for South Africa.