SOUTH AFRICA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 240, 3 July 1908, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICA.

CLOSER UNITY.. THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. NATAL CONCURS. (BT TELEGHAM —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) ' (Rec. July 2, 10.80 p.m.). Durban, July 2. Tho Natal Assembly adopted the Customs Conference's resolutions in favour of closer union (which include tho calling together of a South African Convention to draft a federal ponstitution, tho representation at such Convention to bo Cape Colony, twelvc'delcgates; Transvaal, eight; Natal and Orango River Colony five.each). The Caps Colony, Transvaal and Orange River Colony Assemblies have already passed tho resolutions.

A BRITISH LIBERAL OPINION. ." Tho Federation of South Africa was brought , into practical politics by a resolution passed : on Tuesday,; May 5, at the Inter-Stata Conference now sitting in Pretoria," says the '*Manchester• Guardian." "By the resolution the . State Governments will recommend their Parliaments to appoint delegates to a National Convention, - which will meet and frame a Constitution.' The details of federation are ;about,as complicated as a political problem can be, and, with the best-of ..wishes, it may b'e.\tw6 i'or three years before the union is complete. ' But that the present movement will how have a serious set-back we do not believe. ' AFRICANDERS NOT DISLOYAL. "None of the causes of past failures : exists 'now. , Federation, though it owes much to /Lord Selborne'a advocacy, is in no sense an Imperial measure, but has been taken iip by the. Colonial Governments on their own initiative. ■; Tho several States liave all—thanks to present Government—attained -to full colonial rights. Tho Transvaal, as 'in Lord Carnarvon's day, is newly.! annexed, but- it ■ 6peaks with its own voice, and not with the voice of Downing Street. What is more, iu three out of the.four States a 'Dutch' Government is. in .power, and these Governments have an. obvious-inducement to work together now that the old dream of a united Africander nation is .within reach. Lord Milner's theory that .an Africander nation would be disloyal to'the Crown is now almost everywhere repudiated. It was not true to history, for the Bond was, up to the time of the Jameson Raid, in closest union with Mr. Rhodes, and : a Dutch >Ministry was. quite ready only three months before to go to war with tho Transvaal: over the closing of 'tho drifts. - RAILWAYS, CUSTOMS, LABOUR. .''Annexation could not alter goograpiy, and as a separate-colony the Transvaal, was certain to 'become increasingly'.independent of the. Cape. . Only federation could induco' -the South African' colonies to work together 1 for economic advantage, and what has made., federation is the sentiment of Africander unity, with, which Sir E. Grey and Mr.' -Rhodes in his early days sympathisedbo strongly, and which Lord Milner did his , best .to destroy.; The grant Of self-government to the Transvaal, the equalisation of 'its status , with that older colonies, and the growing sense of. a common South African nationality are _ what have brought: South Africa at.last within.reach of the ideal of the' greatest South African Englishmen and Dutchmen;' The conflict of railway interests—' this cloud of .future strife,' as Lord Selborne recently 'called it—will- 'vanish "before South African federation,, and the wealth of tho Transvaal will be -used for the common good of British South Africa. With federation, tbo, disappears' the risk of, tariff war between the South African coloniesj which is only averted .now by'._.the/unstable compromise of Customs' Conventions.:

"The labour .problem will have a fairer chance of solution if all the colonies pursue one common policy; and union, by bringing strength, will place the white man above the fear,of the black, which has been responsible for so much cruelty $nd injustice.- It is hardly - possible to over-estimate ' tha ' material advantages which" union 1 will' 'bring ?to South Africa, but greatest ,of them all is the proof it /will afford • that our work in South Africa has at last succeeded, and'that-after - many failures wehavo made a loyal and united nation there, as in Canada and,"Australia."