AFRICAN ELECTIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 687, 12 June 1929, Page 8

AFRICAN ELECTIONS

AFTER five years of party conflict marked by unusual recriminations and several perhaps disquieting symptoms, a South African Parliament in which a vigorously Nationalist element predominated goes to the polls again today. It went into office with the aid of a small Labour section in 1924. Previously the South African Party under General Smuts had, with 71 members, held a small majority over the rest of the House. But, though at the 1924 elections the S.A.P. polled 50,000 more votes than the Nationalists, it found itself in a minority when the final results were declared. There were 63 Nationalists, 53 of the South African Party, and 18 Labour members in the Parliament thus elected, and in such circumstances it was only with the assistance of the Labour section that General Hertzog and his Nationalists could hope to hold office. Superficially the aspirations of the Nationalists and of the South African Party differ little, yet behind them lie deep-seated impulses arising from fundamental divergences in outlook. The Nationalist’s ultimate hope is to see South Africa a self-contained country, without any external ties. The friendly relationships that exist on the surface are in many cases offset by lingering racial feeling. This showed itself unpleasantly "during the life of the last Parliament when the protracted disputes over the South African flag culminated in riots when the new emblem was finally hoisted. These disturbances showed that immediate reconciliation is impossible, and that the sentiments actuating them will dominate South African politics for many years to come. New factors have been added to them by the increasing prominence of the native demand for representation and selfdevelopment. For years the slow but inexorable spread of culture among the natives brought directly under European influence has filled thoughtful South Africans of both British and Dutch extraction with the uneasy knowledge that here is a problem by which the popular conscience can not remain untroubled. A Native Bill put through the last Parliament by General Hertzog has not yet been shown to be even a courageous beginning, and the Nationalist leader has lost a great deal of his Labour support. The compact South African Party, after a period in which it has been an exemplary opposition, goes to the polls confidently. But the Nationalists may be assisted from an embarrassing situation by the general prosperity South Africa has enjoyed in recent years.