THE SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTIONS. G ENERAL BOTHA'S courage and straightforwardness have
brought him a very substantial political reward. It would not be just to say much more than that abso- lutely, for his enemies, the Nationalists, have been returned to the Legislature iu a fairly strong cohort, and General Botha would not have a majority if ever the Unionists voted against him. At the same time, tested by the great and various dangers which lay in his path, and which Imperial pessimists thought it almost impossible for him to overcome, General Botha's achievement is a victory. Relatively it is a great victory. He has ensured the safety of South Africa, and proved. the immutability of the will of the great majority on the only subject which really matters for the moment—the strong and unhindered prosecution of the war. It is impossible to look on such a result without being devoutly thankful for the happy chance which found a great Dutchman in power at the time when Germany set in motion all the sinister, corrupting, and perfidious machinery which she had prepared for years in order to make South Africa break away from the British connexion. General Botha has throughout carried with him a great number of Dutchmen from whom hesitation and criticism might have been expected if the Unionists had been in office. It was the same sort of lucky accident which stilled all criticism in Britain when it was seen that oven a Liberal Government who had strained every nerve to conciliate Germany could not prevent the German militarists from forcing war upon us. Although many domestic questions which threaten to divide South Africa remain to be dealt with, the fact is that General Botha and his brilliant lieutenant, General Smuts, have saved South. Africa for the 'Empire, both in the military and the political fields. This is more than a happy result—it is the crowning romance in the romantic rebuilding of South Africa under the gift of freedom. It is surely safe to say that as South Africa has not drifted away from Britain now, she will never do so. The British officers and soldiers in tho campaign in German South-West Africa did as well as their Dutch fellows, but the resource and the great guidance which made the campaign a triumphal progress from beginning to end will be chiefly associated with the names of General Botha and General Smuts. They arranged for an unfailing supply of water in waterless tracts of country; they were able to make themselves quite independent of the poisoned wells; and when they reached the capital their fame for generous conduct had gone before them, and the German officials were able to promise the German populas tion that they had nothing to expect from the invaders but kindness and courtesy.
We cannot refrain from quoting a few lines from the German Proclamation issued at Windhuk, which has been reproduced in the Manchester Guardian " At Swakopmund, which had been evacuated by us, the British troops of occupation have, according to trustworthy reports, not only respected tho private property of the inhabitants oven in cases when the latter were absent, but took special measures to safeguard it permanently against such attempts to seize it as are generally almost unavoidable in evacuated places during a long occupation by a hostile army. Lastly, the British troops which are now marching upon Windhuk have on their road behaved in the same way as the armies of the Union did at Ltideritz Bay and Swakopmund. There is trustworthy information to hand from the women who have remained at Keetsnumehoop that the enemy is conducting himself in every respect decently, and also at the farms of Mariental and Voigtsgrund the behaviour of the British has given no occasion for complaint. At Mariental as well as at Voigtsland they have paid in cash for whatever cattle and other things they took for the provisioning of their men, and they in each case agreed without hesitation to the prices which the farmers had asked. Their personal conduct towards the families of the farmers is described to us as thoroughly considerate and courteous."
No doubt these words calmed the nervous citizens of Windhuk, though the compliments showered on the invaders were indirectly a crushing commentary on the conduct of the German troops, whether they were massacring in Belgium or poisoning wells in South-West Africa. All this may be accepted as an omen. General Botha will win political victories by fairness, good sense, and unwavering honesty.
The need for the people of the Union to stand together in face of Germany is so obvious that there is, after all, no necessary weakness in the fact that General Botha has not an absolute majority over the other parties. There is an absolute anti-German majority, and a very powerful one. That is enough. We do not say that France is about to be overwhelmed by disaster when a Premier is unable to govern without the help of other parties than his own. That is the normal position of a French Premier. We cannot therefore share the misgivings with which some British observers watch the future of South Africa, because General Hertzog has an undoubtedly strong following. The results of the elections are these : General Botha's South African Party, 54 ; Unionists, 40 ; General Hertzog's Nationalists, 27 ; Independents, 5 ; Labour, 4. The first glance at these figures shows that a large majority mean to have a United South Africa. The policy of racial division known as the "two streams" policy is numeri- cally nowhere. Beside that fact we can regard with complacency the defeat of three of General Botha's Ministers, as well as the undoubted fact that the Free State, under the inspiration of Mr. Steyn, and the active leadership of General Hertzog, is almost solidly Nationalist. The virtual obliteration of the labour Party is remarkable. This is the fruits of hesitation and rivalry within the party. Major Creswell, one of the Labour leaders, sees plainly that Labour has as great an interest as any one in the defeat of Germany, but his rival leader denounced war as such without any reference whatever to this particular war. When an attempt was made at the last moment to patch up a working policy for the party, it was too late. General Botha, on a survey of the whole situation, considers himself strong enough to form a Ministry without calling in Ministers from the Unionist Party, and we are glad that this should be so. He will be exposed to less criticism than a Coalition would certainly provoke. Many Dutchmen and Labour mon—so far as Labour now counts—would resent what they would call the capitalistic and urban element in the Government supplied by the Unionists. This, it is true, would. be a most unfair view of the character of the Unionist leaders. But it is as well to take into account distortions and misrepresentations as they aro. They cannot be wholly ignored simply because they are unreason- able. The chief grudge of Labour against General Botha is that be deported the strike leaders in the notorious Labour rising on the Rand. But this weapon in the hands of Labour has already lost all its edge. We suspect, how- ever, that Labour as a force has not gone under quite so far as the figures suggest. Probably a great many men who would have voted for Labour candidates in normal circumstances refused to do so this time because they per- ceived the danger of a junction of Labour and Hertzogism. The dream of Mr. Steyn in this respect has conspicu- ously failed to come true. It failed because General Hartzog talked about it too much. The working man is as sound and sensible at heart in South Africa as ho is here, and when he understood that Nationalism meant helping Germany by impeding those who were fighting Germany, he would have nothing to do with so poisonous a co-operation.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the Nationalists' policy amounted. to helping Germany. General Hertzog advocates a refusal to send any South African troops to Europe. He evolved a fantastic doctrine that General Botha's calling out of the Defence Force to fight in South-West Africa was unconstitutional— as though defence does not consist in beating the enemy who threatens you, even though he retires across a geographical line. He demanded amnesty for the rebels who had worked with Germany and accepted German money. He accused General Botha of having invited General De La Rey to believe that the Government would welcome a rebellion. He included. proved rebels in his party. He preached the " two streams policy, which meant racial division, however much on suitable occasions it might be called racial parallelism. It is a serious enough fact in itself that General Botha should have lost nearly thirty seats in Dutch districts as the result of the circulation of such principles as these. But, as we have said, the danger to him is not an immediate one. Domestic questions are all suspended. Hertzogian bitterness will be quite powerless against General Botha while the war lasts. That is the main and most gratifying outcome of the elections.
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