SOUTH AFRICA

Hokitika Guardian, 10 December 1934, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICA

REPUBLICAN ISSUE * CAPETOWN, Nor. 30. J) r D. F. Malan, once a staunch political ally of General Hertzog, aml now leader of the anti-fusion movement in South Africa, is already faced with a dilemma. As in the old Nationalist Party, two distinct wings have developed in the Malanite movement, one emphasising republicanism as an immediate goal, and issue, while the other looks upon republicanism as tentative, conditional and indefinite of fulfilment. Dr Malan himself and his Cape followers favour the more nebulous variety, but the Transvaal Republicans, including the Calvinists of the Potehefstroom school of thought, and some of the extreme Free State Rebublicans, have made it clear that they will

not brook opposition, as in the old Nationalist Party, when General Hert. zog muzzled the republicans and threatened to repudiate them, while he refused to pennit a Calvinist Bond within the party. At Heilbron in the Free State on the eve of a bye-eiection a party of Republicans delivered a written' question to Dr Malan asking him point blank if he was a Republican. Dr Malan did not reply. At Brandfort th» same evening he was again questioned on the matter. Here he is reported to have stated that secession from the British Empire depended upon circumstances.

“For Nationalists,” Dr Malan saw, “only two ways are open; the relation of Soptli Africa to the British Empire must be clearly defined, particularly as to whether the British Empire recognises and will sustain South Africa’s right of neutrality, or, failing this, republicanism.” This reply has startled the more ardent Republicans, who want a republic, neutrality or no neutrality. In an interview, Dr N. J. van tier Merwe, M. P., one of Dr Malan’s closest allies, stated that Dr Malan’s standpoint was not that the republican ideal would he sacrificed completely if South Africa’s right of neutrality was guaranteed, but that if a policy were adopted making it impossible for South Africa to obtain neutrality then it would become urgent and imperative to agitate strongly and immediately for a republic.

Dr van' dor Merwe added that the difference between the two wings in the Nationalist Party was not so much a difference on the ideal of republicanism as on the method of achieving this ideal. He himself had warned a section of ilobublieans that they were too hasty and too headstrong. He had. always advocated that they should set about achieving their ideal without creating a rupture, and with the cooperation and good will of all.