THE LESSON TO BOTHA

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1914, Page 7

THE LESSON TO BOTHA

A special contributor to The Post writes as follows : — Labour's success in the Transvaal is not without its lesson to General Botha. General Smuts had a hard task to perform when it fell upon him to justify the actions of the Government on the Rand. His speech in the Union House of Assembly seems to harve won no converts to the cause of the Government. Mr. Merriman was among the very few non-Labour members who were unable to look with complacency on the deportations. The Unionists generally supported the Government. But it is somewhat difficult to say piecisely where that party of many names stands at the present time. Prior to the first General Election Labour was not unfriendly to General Botha and the Nationalists. Henceforth little friendship will be lost between the two parties. The Botha Government has now arrayed against it .the Hertzog faction, the Cress-well faction, and the aspiring Young Unionists. Nor has Natal been satisfied. The Independent eleven who were returned, in the main, to oppose the Dutch element, and afterwaids were "nobbled" by General Botha, are threatened with political extinction when the General Election comes round next year. Bertzogism seems not to be on the wane. Theie were two by-elections in the Free State la?t month— at Frankfort and at Bethlehem — and both seats were captured, with big majorities, by supporters of GenerarHsrtzog. In spite of all these signs and portents, it is impossible, as yet, to forecast the future of parties in South Africa. A process of party crystallisation may now be witnessed, and from next election, one may be sure, will emerge some interesting and unexpected regroupings of the country's political forces.