SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19032, 9 June 1924, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS

THE GENERAL ELECTION. GENERAL SMUTS’ BOMBSHELL. (From Otago Daily Times’ Own Correspondent). PIETERMARITZBURG, April 18. Folowing the defeat of a strong Government Party candidate at the Wakkerstroom by-election, the Union Premier, General Smuts, flung a veritable bombshell on Parliament and the country when he announced to the House of Assembly the impending dissolution. of the Assembly and the fighting of a general election to take place in June next. The announcement was a tremendous surprise, not only to the dual Opposition, but to the Government Parliamentary Party as well. The long-looked-for visit of the Prince of Wales has had to be postponed until a more convenient season, and amongst the legislative innocents to be massacred was the Class Areas Bill, otherwise Indian Segregation Bill, which had been made the subject of great political agitation in disturbed India and of remonstrance by the Viceroy. So this large bone of contention has disappeared with the rest for the time being. *-*

The fact was that General Smuts’ majority in the House of Assembly had during the course of three years gradually dwindled from 22 in a House of 134 members to eight, and practically six, seeing that two Government supporters too ill to attend the House. There are moments when a leader needs to go joyously forth to battle in what may be called the careless rapture of a glad confident morning. And General Smuts is a bold as well as a great leader. Some think he is riding for a fall. Whether that is so or not, his seminal intellect always impels him to take the long view. I think he is doing so in this instance. But the country may suffer badly in the meantime if we are in for a change of Government. A gentleman when asked to subscribe fo ra widow left badly off said he was very sorry, and was then asked how much he was sorry. So the question with us is how much we shall suffer if Hertzog, the Nationalist leader, takes Smuts’ place, whether with or without any Labour colleagues in his Ministry.

PAST GENERAL ELECTION. To appreciate correctly the present political position, it may be recalled that the General Election of 1915 returned 54 Government, or South African, Party members, 38 Unionists (British), 28 Nationalists (Dutch), 5 Labourites, and 5 Independents, toal, 130. Five years later, in 1920, the General Election produced a remarkable party stalemate. The Government—as head of which General Smuts had replaced the late General Botha—dropped from 54 members to 40; the Unionists from 38 to 25; and, on the other hand, the Nationalists, having taken up a Republican propaganda, jumped up from 28 to 44; and the previously infantile Lab-

our Party rose from sto 21. These, with two Independents, made up the House. After a non-party legislative session through which General Smuts steered the Government with remarkable success, an attempt was made to unite the South African Party and Nationalists, but it proved abortive. General Smuts issued a general invitation for tho formation of a non-party Government. The Unionists were the only party to take advantage of this overture, and they became amalgamated with the Government Party at the end of 1920. A General Election took place in February, 1921, with the following results: —Government (South African Party, including Unionists, 78; Nationalists, 44; Labour Party, 11; and one Independent. This gave the Government a majority of 22 over the rest of the Assembly, now reduced to 8.

THE PRESENT CRISIS. This dwindling Government majority and the defeat at Wakkerstroom have been largely due, not to any change in the political opinion of the electorate, but to the creation of what is called the Pact between the Nationalist and Labour Parties and' to the inevitable results of increased and heavy taxation and to retrenchment in tho railway and other Government departments. For the latter the Minister of Finance, Mr Burton, and the Minister of Railways and Harbours are blamed, the former for persevering with his Patent Medicine Tax in the face of widespread opposition, and this seems likely to cost the Government more than the tax is worth. Mr Jagger has incurred the resentment of the railway employees on account of the reduced pay and increased house rents. Mr Jagger inherited a large deficit balance, and he is happy in being able to show a surplus of over £1,000,000 on the last year’s working. But his achievement is likely to prove a Pyrrhic victory, for the men generally are up in arms, and take it out of the Government in the ballot box. The Government candidate at Wakkerstroom was an exceptionally strong and popular one, Mr Robertson, who had relinquished the office of Transvaal Administrator to stand for the seat. At the 1921 election the Government man won by 51 votes; on this occasion Mr Robertson was beaten by 213; and the change is generally attributed to the Medicine Tax and Mr Jagger’s economies at the expense of the railway men. Such bread and butter politics outweighed all others. THE PACT. The leaders of the Pact, General Hertzog and Colonel Creswell, both exhibited signs of intense delight when the Prime Minister made his dissolution announcement in the House of Assembly. What does the Pact stand for? It is an agreement between two political parties which have nothing whatever in common but the desire to eject General Smuts from office, and the agreement embodied an undertaking on the part of General Hertzog to drop his Republican aims during the existence of the next Parliament, and on the part of Mr Cresswell on behalf of Labour to drop Socialism during the same period. No principle binds them. Nothing but expediency binds them, and I cannot conceive of any lower form of that convenient course of political action. In case the Nationalist* win the election the Labourites may or may not be given a couple of seats in the Cabinet, but only if their numbers are enough to command it. What Labour really aims at is that it will hold the balance of power in the new Assembly, and so exercise a far-reach-ing influence on the legislation of the country. It hopes to double its representation, which stood at 13 in the Assembly last session. Mr Boydell, Labour’s second-in-command, anticipates a Pact majority of 30 at the General Election. Labour’s cries will be that the Pact means peace, and that it has killed racialism.

The general name given by the Government Party to the Pact is that it is “an unholy alliance.” Its unholiness appeals very forcibly to General Smuts. Id addressing the Junior South African Party at Johannesburg two days ago he spoke of it as an 4 ‘ unholy deed of shame,” and “tho most immoral, the most unnatural union that has ever been formed in South African politics.” “It rested,” he added, “on mere vote-catching, on mere hatred of the Prime Minister, and the desire to get rid of him by hook or by crook.” Sir Abe Bailey, also speaking at Johannesburg as a supporter of Smuts, gave it as his opinion that the Labour Pafty is being diddled by the Nationalists, and that Mr Cresswcll, the Labour leader, should, as the best thing for himself, retire, and the next best thing was for him to be defeated.

GENERAL HERTZOG THE LABOUR PARTY. In view of the present pact between the Nationalists and Labour Party, it is interesting to quote what the Nationalist leader, General Hertzog, thought of his present allies at the last General Election three years ago:— u The Labour Party has been shattered on the Nationalist rock of Afrikanderdom, and justly so, for great profit of Afrikanderdom, for the Labour Party is only such in name ... Up to now it has sailed under false colours and has no reason for its existence . . . The victory over the Labour Party is pure gain to us.” So do principles turn with times. PACT EXPECTED TO WIN. The general expectation, at any rate at present, is that the Pact will win the election in June, and that General Hertzog will make its appearance in Parliament in July as Prime Minister. General Smuts has been in ministerial office ever since the Union began in 1910, and he was a member of the Transvaal Government for two years immediately previous to Union. Grievances do accumulate, especially in times of depression with its commitants of taxation and retrenchment, and, as General Hertzog’s Republicanism is muzzled for the next parliament at any rate, he is likely to prove a winner. What share, if any, in the Cabinet may fall to the lot of Labour, will depend, I think, on circumstances. It reminds one of Burke’s saying that “government is founded on compromise and barter.” General Smuts should prove most interesting in a new role of Opposition Leader. It will not be with him “Along the cool sequester’d vale of life, he keeps the noiseless tenor of his way.” However, he has taken occasion by the forelock in this instance, and he is a fine fighter. So there may be surprises for us.