MR. HERTZOG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16032, 25 September 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

MR. HERTZOG.

BY B. W. REED. Mr. He:<tzog, as personal enemy and political rival of General Botha, occupies a conspicuous position in South Africa at the present time when the country is preparing for probably the most singular general election that has ever taken place the British Empire. What the political contest now proceeding in the Union will decide is, whether South Africa is to be governed according to British ideals and by Ministers friendly to Great Britain, or according to the narrowest tenets of Krugerism and by men defiantly hostile to Great Britain. General Botha stands for Great Britain and the Empire ; Mr. Hertzog is at the head of the Dutch reactionaries.

Circumstances of a very remarkable character are immediately suggested by a consideration of Mr. Hertzog's political career. He had caused trouble in the Free State before the inauguration of union by his attacks upon Lord Milner, and by his ridiculous attempts to compel English children to learn Dutch. General Botha, in forining the first Ministry of the Union, we now know, endeavoured to have represented in his Cabinet the different political sections within the four provinces. Thus, among his colleagues, were : Mr. F. S. Malan, descendant of a Huguenot family, from France; Messrs. Hull and Burton, Englishmen, born at the Cape of Good Hope and the late Dr. O'Grady Gubbins, from Natal, whose birth-place was in County Limerick. His desire was to avoid an entirely Dutch Ministry. The laudable object which brought the Hugue-not,-the two Englishmen, and the Irishman into the Union Ministry brought also Mr. Munnik Hertzog, whose near ancestors were pure Germans. The latter fact helps | to explain many recent, otherwise inexi plicable, happenings in South Africa.

It is probably a coincidence and nothing more, that the resumption of Mr. Hertzog's anti-British utterances synchronised in a most marked manner with the renewal of German activities in South Africa. The outcome of the South African War seemed to partially paralyse for a time the energies of the Teutons within the sub-Continent. But only for a time. Will it be believed that in British South Africa German schools were established, at which, daily, the German flag was formally unfurled, German national songs sung, and " hochs" given for the Kaiser ? Surely, surprised observers commented, the Germans must have friends in the Union Ministry when displays of this kind are permitted. The setting up of exclusively German schools was only one of the many forms of German interference in South Africa. General Botha was frequently criticised, and in no friendly manner, for his seeming indifference to the interests of the Union in not dealing more firmly with Germany's agents. But it must be remembered that then Germany was a friendly Power, and it is just possible that she had " friends at court" at Capetown in the person of Mr. Hertzog

General Botha has made no secret of his conviction that he erred in selecting Mr. Hertzog as a member of the Union Ministry. The latter individual himself, by his interviews, speeches, and manifestoes, has made the fact abundantly plain that he was altogether out of his element as a member of any British Government. Not only were there . quarrels within the Cabinet, but the personal disputes of Ministers were also carried into the Houses of Parliament. The personal attacks and recriminations which took place in the Legislative Assembly of them caused by Mr. —unedifyiug and undignified as they were, for some reason strangely gratified the backward politicians of the Free State. Encouraged by the dopper, reactionary element, Mr. Hertzog became bolder, he having to live and speak, up to his reputation on the backveld. Then followed a succession of speeches, intended solely to inflame the smouldering, slowly-dying racial hatreds of the ignorant Hutch. Mr. Hertzog is probably but a passing phenomenon, destined soon to disappear from the political scene in South Africa. He, like many another professional politician, has gained his "bad eminence" by sheer pandering to ignorant prejudice. He has but encouraged the lingering remnants of Krugerism among men, many of them utterly devoid of education, all of them childishly credulous, but capable of intense hatreds, of brute force, and of bloodshed. He is practically the self-appointed leader of the reactionaries, and is General Botha's principal opponent. For those reasons alone importance attaches to his preposterous utterances. Speaking at Nylstroom to the "oprecht" of that historic district, he defined the relative positions of Dutch and British in South Africa. He did. it this "way, according to the Volkstem: " The Afrikander must be baas (master) —baas in politics, in the Civil Service, and everywhere. For many years it had been the misfortune of South Africa that their (the Dutch) interests had been represented by foreign fortune-seekers, mostly of English origin." It required considerable audacity on the part of a semi-German, speaking in British territory, to describe English settlers as " foreign fortune-seekers." But Mr. Hertzog was equal to the occasion. He has laid down the law that Dutch and British in South Africa must remain apart: that there could be no minglijg, and that they should be as two streams that would never unite. The union of the two races, it may be noted in passing, has not been, or is likely to be, greatly affected by the homilies of Hertzog. Intermarriages of' Dutch and British have taken place since the two races appeared in the country, and, of late years, the unions have "become more numerous than before. Politicians will not keep the younger generations apart. Things rapidly went from bad to worse ; and, finally. General Botha rid himself of this unique Minister by the simple expedient of dissolving the Ministry. He being called upon by the Governor-General to form a new Ministry-, did so, and left Mr. Hertzog out in the cold. The conflict that has raged ever since, unfortunately, " for the gaiety of the nations," has been largely lost sight of by events of greater moment. The ex-Minister seemed to- forget his hatred of England in denouncing General Botha.' He demanded that the

General should retire from the Government, declared that the political opinions of Botha were precisely the same as his, but that the latter dare not avow the fact. He, in short, as representing Krugerism, played his part well. Whether or not the rebellion was the national corollary of Hertzogism cannot yet with accuracy he ascertained. The rebellion, he. termed, "an armed protest"— somewhat Teutonic method of conducting a political crusade. This remarkable ex-Minister had the temerity to justify the rebellion. The rebellion, according to him, was not really a rebellion until the burghers were driven into rebellion : they were driven into rebellion because they had ' lost faith in General Botha; they had lost faith in General Botha because he had " violated the fundamental principles of liberty" by refusing to resign when he no longer represented the people;" he (Botha) no longer represented " the people" when he deprived the Cabinet of Mr. Hertzog. General Botha's dismissed Minister, it will be gathered, possesses the very qualities which are required in a leader of tie Krugerite reactionaries. But, if we judge aright, they are qualities -which will not commend themselves to the majority of electors—British or Dutch—within the I Union of South Africa,, '