WANTS MORE TERRITORY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 20, 24 July 1934, Page 16

WANTS MORE TERRITORY

MOVE BY SOUTH AFEICA

WILL DOUBLE ITS SIZE

■« Prime Minister Hcrtzog. has stirred up a hornet's nest in British Empire politics,, writes Erie Bosenthal in the "San Francisco Chronicle." ■'' He has told' the British Government that South Africa wants to annex an additional-293,400 square miles of territory that adjoins its borders and is at present ruled direct from Downing Streets . . - ■ If General Hertzog succeeds in his plan, the Union of South Africa will acquire. 'additional black inhabitants to the .number of 956,000, and about 7000 more Europeans; and he will have almost doubled the area- of the Union by enlarging it from 474,000 to 767,000 square, miles* Bechuanaland. protectorate, Basutoland, and Swaziland are the three native territories that he wants to have placed under the administration of Pretoria instead of London.. Each of the countries bears a considerable resemblance to the .reservations of the Indians in the United States, and it is generally acknowledged that American' as well as Canadian precedent is chiefly responsible for General Hertzog's {action. Ordinary settlement of white colonists iis-iiot tolerated, in these regions. Bechuanaland, which lies for the most part in" the wrongly called Kalahari "desert" (a'fine cattle country), covers 275,000 square miles or rather more than Texas, and is the ' home of the Bechua'na, '. Bamangwato, and other tribes, as well as of primitive Bushmen hunters. Altogether the blacks number 193,000, as against 1800 whites. Basutoland, nicknamed "the Switzerland of South Africa," is like an island in the heart of the Union, full of magnificent mountains 12,000 feet in height. In extent it is about 11,700 square miles. It has 580,000 Basutos and 1800 whites. As for Swaziland, this is about 6700 square miles. Here 122,000 once warlike Swazis, who closely resemble the neighbouring Zulus, have their home, along with 2500 Europeans. By treaty with the old-time native chiefs, signed in Victorian times, these three territories came under the direct rule of. Downing Street, which still administers them. Their officials supervise the present day tribal heads, and do not form part of the South African but of- the British Colonial Civil Service. • Sir Herbert Stanley, High Commissioner, specially appointed by King George, who is the de facto Ambassador of Great Britain to the Dominion, is also "'Supreme Chief" of these areas. White settlement has not been allowed in these three districts save in a few restricted neighbourhoods, and they have stagnated for many years. White opinion in the Union is almost solidly behind General Hertzog in claiming these territories, but the native chiefs would like to see the matter, postponed. In England, where missionary opinion dislikes the Union's policy in refusing to acknowledge equality of black and white, there is considerable opposition. Thus far the British Government has given only evasive answers to Parliamentary inquiries, but it is believed in South Africa. that General Hertzog will have his way, and that matters have developed further than is officially admitted.