POLITICAL CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1108, 22 April 1911, Page 5

POLITICAL CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

4 THE EDUCATION QUESTION.DISSENSION IN GOVERNMENT PARTY. By Telecraph—Press Association—Copyrieht ■■' -'-London, Apfjl-20. 1; ■ The-"Standard's" Cape Town correspondent reports that the situation in the Union Parliament has suddenly developed into an acute crisis, owing to the obstruction by General Hertzog, Minister for Justice, of the proposed compromise on the education question. The correspondent adds that dissension in the ranks of the Government party is rife. COMPULSORY DUTCH. General Hertzog delivered a speech at Pretoria some time ago on the education policy of the Union. Ho said the Transvaal education law was not in accordance with Article 137 of tho Constitution. The campaign against the Dutch language being made compulsory was narrow-minded. The speaker recalled the time when school children wcro ashamed of their parents because they were unable to spealc English. If tins had continued the children would have been fit for nothing but Itunkcys. All through the election campaign in South Africa the Unionist candidates predicted that should the .Afrikander Government remain in power tho HerUog Act of the Orange Free State would be brought into operation throughout the Union. The Act compels every child to learn both English and Dutch. Its provisions are summarised by Mr. Gmin, formerly Director of Education in the Free State, as fol-lows-.—"Every child has to be taught in every subject through both tho English and Dutch mediums, and the instruction has to be given by a teacher conversant with both languages. This means for all practical purposes that no British-born or unilingwiiil teacher can be appointed. In addition to.this, the Free State Parliament, in its last session, passed an Act which made a knowledge of both English and Dutch obligatory on all teachers who j desired to obtain permanent posts, while giving the teachers already employed a totally inadequate period in which to learn the Dutch language. "This Act," says Mr. Gunn, "could have no other effect than to drive out of the colony any British-born teachers that remained, and to prevent the appointment of any more." As to tho working of the Hertzog Act, Mr. Gunn summarises the position as follows:—"Wherever an attempt was made to put the Act strictly into- operation there was trouble. The, English parents, and also many of the Dutch parents, objected to the dual medium, on the ground that it led to a waste of time, and caused confusion of .thought and speech. As an interesting sidelight on the situation it may be mentioned that the infant mistress of Ladybrand School, where the Dutch outnumbered the English by nearly three to One, asked each of the parents whether they wanted English or Dutch as the medium. The parents have, of course, no option in the matter; but when they were approached almost every one, both Dutch' and English, asked for the English medium. The public view of the situation is indicated by tho fact that tho attendance in the schools dropped in a little over a year by a thousand.