The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1960. An Afrikaner Republic

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29330, 8 October 1960, Page 12

The Press SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1960. An Afrikaner Republic

The result of the South African , referendum will allow Dr. > Verwoerd and his colleagues legally to complete the bleak of Afrikaner nationhood. That the majority for a Republic was so small is irrelevant to Dr. Verwoerd's purpose; j*he proposal could have been —carried by a single vote. The aim of the referendum Zwas to unite South Africa's ...White races, co-operation between which would be impos•'Sible, in Dr. Verwoerd’s view. so long as the “ English ” retained their loyalty to Britain --and the Crown. At first the referendum campaign was by the state of imposed after the "Sharpeville shootings; but when the emergency was lifted -en August 31 partisanship and racism could be contained no longer. The sequel was a campaign of great bitterness and acr'mony. Hatreds conceived during the Boer wars were revived to support the republicans’ contention that, short of a republic, the Afrikaner nation could not be entirely free from English domination. In 1948, when the South African National Party , ..first came to power, it appealed to Afrikaners’ sense of selfpreservation not me. sly because of its doctrine of apartheid for the Bantu, but*' because it offered the prospect of a vast counter-attack against the creation of an English speaking J,",South Africa. Afrikanerdom Llhas developed into an ideological system operating in four ’".Spheres: language, education. religion, and politics. Its dogmatic approach to race relations Implies intolerance, not only towards non-whites, but towards other Europeans who may challenge Afrikaner supremacy. To the exent that “ English " South Africans can be assimilated, .they ’ 7 iU have • w a place in the new republic; * - but their loyalties must be undividedly to an Afrikaner - nation. Final figures in the referendum are uncertain. Enough -'is clear, however, to suggest the majority for a republic > ,is less than Dr. Verwoerd might ” have expected if his proposal —had been endorsed by all Afrikaner voters. This is in spite ’of a clause of the United •a, (Opposition) Party s constitution approving steps towards X* establishing a republic. According to official South African ' statistics fewer than 45 per

cent, of the Union’s present white population speak English as their mother tongue. Because of the large number of unopposed seats Parliamentary elections afforded an inadequate guide to forecasters of the referendum result At the 1958 election the National Party was probably supported by a little less than half the total electorate, although by various means it won 103 of 156 seats. Since then the franchise has been extended to all whites over the age of 18; and the white electorate (which alone was required to decide the constitutional issue) Las increased by about 250.000. Most 'of these younger voters are likely to have favoured the republican cause; and their votes may have been decisive. Of importance, too, was the heavy republican support in Southwest Africa, where the Union’s rights of suzerainty are dubious. Throughout South Africa the “ English ’’ opposition to a republic seems to have been solid. Some in the Afrikaner camp—for instance businessmen and farmers anxious about their overseas trade— presumably voted against |he Nationalist plan. The most outspoken of Dr. Verwoerd’r Ministers, Dr. Albert Hertzog, had proclaimed bluntly .hat the republican struggle was against two dangers: the British and the blacks. In spite of this, apartheid seems to have lacked its usual power to unify through fear; and the racial basis of the voting is Likelier to have been purely European tensions.

What of the future? Other republics have stayed within the Commonwealth. Unless the issue is precipitated earlier, the next Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference will probably devote even more time than the last to South Africa’s status and the protested sanctity of its domestic affairs, however offensive to other countries. Already South Africa’s international isolation is almost complete. The breakdown of Commonwealth ties could add serious economic hardships to the other penalties of Nationalist self-righteous-ness. The black victims of apartheid have their champions nearly everywhere; but per haps more pitiful is the plight of the “ English ’’ South Africans who. through, no fault other than regard to. Britain, fear relegation to an outcast, inarticulate minority.