News of the Week
MR. TIELMAN ROOS, resigning his position on the bench of the Supreme Court in South Africa to plunge again into the turmoil of politics (and stir them into a considerably greater turmoil still), is staking his future on the outcome of a highly risky manoeuvre. He may, or may not, succeed in forcing the Hertzog Cabinet to resign, and it by no means follows that if he does he will become Prime Minister himself. If it turns out that Mr. Roos can still carry the Transvaal Nationalists as he once could, then the Prime Minister's position may well be untenable, but the second part of the Roos programme—coalition with the South African Party, minus General Smuts, who is to be Minister of External Affairs resident (curiously enough) in London—may be harder to realize, for General Smuts' own position is strong. His party has just won an important by-election and gained a considerable Labour accession, and there is little reason why he should resign the field to a former political opponent whose career has not been such as to inspire the South • African Party with any excessive confidence in him. Mr. Roos' demand for abolition of the gold standard, already largely conceded by the Hertzog Cabinet in consequence of the uncertainty caused by the Roos coup, and his declaration of war on racialism, are planks from the South African Party's own pro- gramme, and apart from the personal elements involved the two camps could easily enough coalesce. * * * *
