VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 19277, 23 June 1924, Page 5

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTIONS PACT IN THE LEAD THE POSITION SUMMED UP. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) CAPETOWN, June 20. The Pact has a majority of 29. The Nationalists will be the largest party, with 63 members. The South African Party will have 53, Labour 18, and there will be one Independent. At the time of the dissolution the South African Party numbered 71.

At a big Pact demonstration at Bloemfontein, General Hertzog was welcomed by Mr Barlow, a Labour member, as the future Prime Minister of the Union, amidst great enthusiasm. General Hertzog, in replying, thanked the English-speaking supporters of the Pact. He said that it would be his sacred endeavour that they should live together as one united people.

An analysis of the statistics reveals the fact that the South African Party polled 150,000 voles against 169,000 for the Pact. Thus, while the Nationalists will be the strongest individual party in the new House, the South African Party is the individual party which polled most votes in the Union. The returns for 127 contested seats show that the South African Party polled 36,000 more votes than the Nationalists, yet they hold eight fewer seats. The Pact strength lies in the Transvaal, the Free State, and the north-west of Cape Colony. The South African Party’s strongholds are the eastern provinces of the Cape, the Peninsula, and Natal. GENERAL HERTZOG SPEAKS. NO SECESSION FROM BRITAIN. CAPETOWN, June 21. (Received June 22, 11 p.m.) General Hertzog, interviewed, was reticent as to whether he intended to take Labour into the Cabinet, but frankly admitted that he was unable to carry on without Labour support. He claimed that the result of the eleetion was undoubtedly a verdict for the Pact, and attributed bis success to the people being desirous of a change in Government. The Pact was now ended, but the country expected the Labour and Nationalist parties to continue in co-operation. Asked if he were prepared to repeat the assurance that the Nationalists would stand by their pledge and make no effort to changed Constitutional relations with Britain as provided in the Act of Union, General Hertzog declared that the Nationalists without exception were prepared to stand by their pledge, and added, “I say positively that the Nationalists do not look upon secession as a matter of practical politics, and are not likely to do so till the bulk of the people, especially the mass of British feeling, is in its favour. The question has never been a Nationalist Party question at all. It has been raised by General Smuts deliberately to frighten the English-speaking community. It is due in no small measure to the fact that the people refused any longer to be frightened by the bogey that followers of the Labour Party and others had so heartily supported the Nationalists. I hope that the secession bogey is now definitely laid, and with it the cry of racialism. The Pact has scotched it.”

Many members of the Labour rank and file are opposed to the Labourites joining General Hertzog’s Cabinet, as contrary to the cardinal principles of the Party. A Labour Conference will be held on June 29 to decide the matter.