SPECTABIL IA
THE extremists among General Hertzog's followers may be satisfied with the result of the flag controversy in South Africa, but no one else can be. The Pact (Nationalist and Labour Coalition) stock, according to the Cape Town correspondent of the Times, has " slumped " heavily. Two months ago the glass appeared to . be " set fair," for the Govern- ment and the alliance of the Nationalist and Labour Parties had weathered the session successfully. The Government's flag policy has once more emphasized the fact that back-veld Dutchmen and British Labour. supporters make strange bedfellows. Moderate South Africans of both races deplore the racial bitterness inevitably aroused by the introduction of the flag con- troversy. If the Government persists in its policy of, forcing on South Africa a flag which ignores the wishes, of half the population, the days of the Pact are numbered.. It is stated that General Hertzog is under the thumb of the extremists like Mr. Tielman Roos, but even so he may well pause before reintroducing a measure which will put back the co-operation of the two races twenty years.
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