THE BOER LEADERS

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16326, 23 August 1913, Page 10

THE BOER LEADERS

“ The forces of racialism and. reaction, led by General Hertzog, aro attacking tho army of tho Moderates, which swears nllegianc© to General Botha, tho Prime Minister of tho Union,” writes a Johannesburg correspondent in reviewing South African politics. “It is a war in which Boer is opposed to Boer. What the great mass of fhe Dutch dread more than anything else is that it may develop into an open conflict at the polls, for that way lies tho return of the British section to power.” The cablegram which says that General Hertzog has “fiercely attacked General Botha for allying himself to tho cosmopolitan financiers and Imperialists to the detriment of South African interests,” shows that the'struggle between the two parties, the Old N Boers and the New Boers, is proceeding actively in spite of all the attempts made to patch up a settlement. General Botha is the type of the New Boer, filled with the spirit of racial conciliation and the desire for a really united South Africa. He sees his country os a whole and not from the point of view of a violent partisan. His chief opponent—once his comrade on the field of battle—appeals to pro-Boer and anti-British sentiment. “Tho difference may be put m this way,” writes the same correspondent. “General Botha places South Africa first. General Hertzog places the Boer first. General Botha aims at uniting British and Dutch in one South African nation. General Hertzog prefers a nation in two watertight compartments, and is mainly concerned in strengthening tho Dutch compartment.” The end of tho struggle is not yet in sight, but the South Africans expect that the general election now approaching will do something towards defining the positions of the various groups and promoting the natural alliance between tho British and tho Moderate Dutch against tho reactionary advocates of racialism.