NOTES AND COMMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 23 June 1924, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

South African Elections: “General” liertzog lias been acclaimed the new I'rnne Minister ot the Gnion ol South Ainea. The Nationalist-Labour Pact has a majority oi the Nationalists with bit, being tho largest party ia tlie new House. An analysis oi the election statistics, the cable messages tell us this morning, sliows that tho Eolith Airieati Party polled 150,000 votes against J(jh,ooo for tho Pact. “Tims,” the reports run, “while the Nationalists will he the strongest individual Party in the new House, the South Alriean Party is the individual party which polled the most votes in tho Onion m a whole.” Averaging the aggregate vote cast lor the Government Pan..' compared with the votes polled by H:o Pact, we find that each member oMbe South Alriean Party represents 3UOn electors, whereas the ineumLis sun to Parliament by the Pad. each pobel 2000 votes. “Returns lor I~< contested seats show that the -outh African Partv polled 00,000 more votes than the Nationalists, yet they hold ei.-ht fewer -cam." Other cable mesvme-- <dvo, the Nationalists a lead of ten seam. Put “Oeneral” Hertzng has had his revenge, for h was General s; irin K who crushed the rebellion in South Africa soon after war was declared in Europe. “General” Hertzog ] IO I ( p with :m almost religions fervoui ilk> lull creed of Dutch South African mil imialiiy. He believes in the prescriptive right of the Dutch to the "oil of South Africa. He resents the presence of the British and look's on them as interlopers. He would have had South Africa remain a community oi pnstornlists, entirely cut off from intercourse with European countries, mi, blissfully remote iYom the problems that, are created by the growth of ‘-treat industries and the riopiila; ion thev attract. “South Africa fir-!.": this is his motto, the text of many of his

public utterances, t-iic ten that lie would apply to any matter which eoncerued tiie Empire or which the Urai.ge River Colony has become a pan. During the \\orld \\ ar, Mr ilertzog, commonly given the title ,<i “General - ’ by friends and opponents aliko (although it does not mark am distinguished service m the held,), .insisted that no sacrifice of the immediate claims on the part ot the Empire, to the welfare ol the whole, could be tolerated. To contemplate such a sacrifice was to be guilty ol treachery to South Africa, to Lo branded as a “foreign adventurer,” to be excluded once and for all from the company of good patriots. Of “General” ilertzog, “The Times”

‘History of the War,” says: “Ills was the whole gospel of Krugerism, modified only in appearance so as to conform with the changed conditions of a country in which Krugerism had been countered and beaten by Great .Britain. Its logical outcome was rebellion as soon as the moment came when a decision would have to be made between the momentary interests of South Africa and the welfare and safety of the Empire .... Tho Hcrtzog policy led at last to rebellion in South Africa, though Ilertzog himself flinshed from the extreme and refused to take up the arms of the rebel.” And now tho whirligig of time has sent General Smuts, the saviour of South Africa threatened by tho rebellion, into political oblivion, and has placed “General” Ilertzog and his colleagues in the seats of the mighty.

The Liberal-Labour 5.0.5.:

There is quite a nutter in the Mberai-Eabour dovecots over the ~usai ot the Invercargill Elbenu paper to shut its eyes to oovious facts m connection witn the leadership o* party. Moreover, it is deeply signincaut that Mr W Utord did not include bout-bland in his recent visit to tho south, ostensibly on the grounds that the southern district has a large parliamentary representation which votes with Mr 'Wilford, sut in reality, we are assured, because, the Southland Liberals have no faith in Mr Wiiiord’s leadership. “There is no inspiration,” remarks “The Southland News,” “in tho speeches of any of those Liberal orators who have taken the platform; only the never-dying traditions of the party may have induced respective audiences' to favour the cause of the invaders. The need of a change is urgent enough, but if is useless to attempt any serious work of reconstruction until all the Liberals are in the one camp, under the one leader. The leader need not necessarily be Mr AYilford, and we are inclined to believe it would not be the for Hutt. He has the ability, but no one is disposed to take him seriously. All the qualifications in the world are useless unless they can inspire confidence in those.who make and break Governments, and Mr Wilford’s record shows him to be a failure as n leader, as Sir Joseph Ward was before him. "When practically every member that sits in tho Opposition benches is convinced that he is hot the leader they would choose, how can the public feel any enthusiasm for the choice?

itepiying ti this indictment, which sinquy reiterates the plain truths the uovernment papers nave stressed since the Member for Hurt assumed leadersnip, Mr \\ lilord say-, his Tarty is solid, and as happy a lamily as evei worked in political life. All are accounted for and all are true. Mi Wilford is beating the air. He knows perfectly welt that since about onethird of the membership of his party comes from Southland and that the Invercargill journal is the principal Liberal organ circulating in the province, that his parly is by no means “as happy a family as ever worked m political life. - ’ But Mr Aviiford lias imagination, if little else save the saving sense of humour that has won for bun a reputation as a political joker. The declaration by Mr Will’ord, that the new party which is to arise from tho ashes of tho Liberal-Labour Party is to be led by Mr Rollcston, Member of Timaru, is an extraordinary piece of political imagining. Mr Wilford knew quite well when ho passed through Timaru at the end oi last week that Mr Itolleston has no such aspirations; moreover, the indictment the Invercargill .Liberal journal hurls at Mr Wilford’s leadership made no mention of the member for Timaru. We have it on the authority of Mr Rollcston that lie knows nothing about the move to form a new paitj. Attei Mr Wilford’s triumphal tour of the North Island in which lie pictured himself wresting scat after scat from the Reform Party, and finally loosening the Prime Minister's hold on franklin, the cold douche from the Liberal South should awaken Mr Wilford from his pleasant dreaming!