The Dominion. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1910. GENERAL BOTHA'S POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 983, 25 November 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1910. GENERAL BOTHA'S POLICY.

General Botha, Prime Minister of the South African Union, evidently is in no hurry to place his working policy before the world. Precisely what lino he and his Cabinet intend to pursue on questions even of most commonplace character nobody can tell. Probably the Botha Ministry itself has not yet decided what its policy is to be with regard to the larger and • more debatable themes now before the country. Much of Lord Gladstone's speech at the opening of Parliament was occupicd with machinery legislation, that is legislation _ necessary to set the wiieeis of the new Government in motion, Measures are, however, promised on, among others, naturalisation and immigration, which, when debated in Parliament, should elicit much-needed information touching the filling up of- the country, land policy, .and settlement; A Commission to inquire into, and make recommendations on, the promotion of local industries is, we should conclude, not very urgently required. It would bo interesting to know how many of the recommendations of Commissions of this class which have already sat have been -adopted, or even considered. Only last year Natal had its Commission on local industries. Governments, unless they are to fall back upon the granting of subsidies or on State ownership, are in reality powerless where is concerned the actual beginning and carrying on of any form of industrial activity. Trub, they may provide railway facilities and readjust tho tariff for the benefit of young industries, but the industries in most eases should be there first, and . that through' the foresight and energy of the company or the individual. This particular subject . is somewhat interesting for the reason that, as far as the members of the Botha Government, as of the Unionist Opposition, can be judged, the objectionable system of. pretending that ccrtain forms of industry are deserving of State aid) and protection seems to find no favour in South Africa. Commissions appear to have a kind of' soporific effect upon the public, which fact may account for General Botha's many Commissions .—those appointed, and those to be appointed. ' During tho election campaign, Nationalist, or Botha, candidates maintained a striking silence on the one. subject which at the moment undoubtedly overshadows South Africa. That is, the native question. Relatively few statesmen or'politicians have dealt freely and frankly with this great problem; but those who addressed themselves to it in public have done so with a candour that is almost startling. The Hon. W. P. Schreiner, a former Premier of Cape Colony, for example, wrote of the new Constitution: "Firstly, tho scheme disappoints me because it appears narrow, illiberal, and shortsighted in its conception of tho people of South Africa.' Tho great majority are not of European race- or desccnt, and their rights and future arc not adequately safeguarded or provided for, merely by maintaining the temporary privileges of the Cape native or coloured electors.' The duties of European South Africans ■towards the other races demand a fundamental constitutional definition, while the nc\v Constitution places the future of all natives and coloured persons in jeopardy by the vote of two-thirds of a Union Parliament in which they have no fair representation." Mr. Mekriman seems likewise fjilly alive to the gravity of the existing situation. Interviewed by a London journalist, he recently said: "Our greatest difficulty and our greatest danger are provided by the natives. In South Africa wc have the white and the coloured races face to face, struggling'for supremacy, and it has yet to be shown what tho outcome will be. This kind of problem is, of course, not confined to South Africa, but here we have it in its most acute form. The . difficulties of tho question are bound to be vastly increased by tho action of some of the so-called friends of the natives, who arc taking what I believe to be an injurious and disastrous line in raising tho native issue at the present time." When Mr. Schreinee. speaks of native rights being inadequately safeguarded, and Me. Merrisian considers , the native question a difficulty and a danger, tho time would seem to have come for action ' of some kind to be taken by the Union Government. ■ No reference . appears in Lord Gladstone's speech to tho native population, and evidently the Botha Ministry intend to pursue in the future the Dutch native, policy of the past. That policy, provided the natives remained obedient and quiescent, was one of laisscz-fairc—the. natives were left severely alone. In Capo Colony special efforts were made to educatc the blacks and raise them to a higher civilisation. For ' .several years in that colony they have had the franchise, and this they still retain, though they are • ei-cludcd by the Constitution from sitting in tho Union Parliament, Natal passed a Native Enfranchisement Act soon after tho Cape, but it..was, in effect, ignored, as only: two native names over reached the electoral roll. The two Republics, | on the other hand, rigorously op- 1 posed the granting of political rights to the natives, irrespective of their education or position. In the Transvaal Grondwot, or Constitution, it is expressly laid down that thero is never to be equality between the white arid the coloured races, cither in Church or in State. President Krugkr and- his "doppor" followers- firmly believed that they had theological sanction for a policy which regarded the coloured and black races as-mere hewers of wood and drawers of water. Save in Cape Colony, the natives have no direct representation, no voice in the political affairs of the State. Tho situation as it exists, most South Africans admit, cannot continue ad infinitum. Schools and. collcgfls are,

turning out educated, intelligent natives, all of whom, it is said, are "born politicians." They arc paying taxes, and they ask a share in the governing of their country. Scores of young natives go yearly to America for education, and return to tell of what their brethren possess across the Atlantic. The idea of a great, combined rising of savage South Africa against the whites may be dismissed as being beyond the possible. Trouble may, however, arise through the legitimats agitation of tho educated classcs spreading to tho ignorant, and not too friendly, natives, whose methods will not be legitimate.