THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA Grey, Carnarvon and even Milner himself had all thought that union would most easily come by a preliminary merging of one or more of the various constituents of South Africa with a more dom inant colony : this too had perhaps been Kruger's idea. But the actual method of approach was not found until all the four colonies could meet together as independent entities and on absolutely equal terms. This condition was secured far sooner than almost anyone could have expected by Campbell Bannerman's courage and faith in granting full responsible government to the two new colonies within five years of the peace of Vereeniging. The confusion of four separate governments for a total European population of less than a million and a quarter were obvious. These and other considerations were brought out in a lucid and convincing memo randum largely prepared by Lionel Curtis and his friends and adopted by the new high commissioner, Lord Selborne, who then issued it with a covering letter in Jan. 1907 at the request of Jameson, then prime minister of the Cape. The memorandum was actually published just before the two new colonies obtained responsible government, in January and June 1907 respectively: but, as soon as the new governments had found time to take stock of South African affairs, they heartily agreed with the Cape and Natal in welcoming a national convention to formulate a plan of union. This convention, which met successively at Durban and Capetown and was attended by delegates not only from the four self-governing colonies but also from Rhodesia, lasted from Oct. 1908 to the following February and elaborated the consti tution of the Union in very much the same shape as it was finally adopted by votes in the parliaments of all the colonies except Natal, which accepted it by a referendum to all the voters. Passed by the imperial parliament by an act of 1909, the Union of South Africa was established on May 31, 1910, under the auspices of a new governor general and high commissioner, Lord Gladstone, son of the great statesman who had formerly restored its independence to the Transvaal and himself a member of the Government which had so promptly granted self-government to the new colonies after the war.
Certain characteristics of the Union constitution, due to the special circumstances of South Africa, are noteworthy. Much friction was avoided at the earliest sittings of the convention by the decision to make Dutch, equally with English, an official language. In the last sittings the question of the capital threat ened to split the delegates irretrievably ; but finally the difficulty of reconciling rival claims was overcome by the ingenious device of making Pretoria the seat of government, Bloemfontein the seat of the judiciary and Capetown the meeting place of parliament, an arrangement which has at least the merit of causing legislators and ministers to travel about the Union more than they would otherwise. It was found impossible to devise a uniform scheme of franchise or non-franchise for the natives ; so the more liberal system of the Cape in making no distinction of colour, but only of education, was retained and safe-guarded there, while the other colonies kept their own exclusive system. Provision was made for Rhodesia's future admission to the Union on terms to be approved by the privy council, and also for enabling the Union to take over the native protectorates of Basutoland, Bechuana land and Swaziland, on special terms laid down in a schedule and drawn up in consultation with the high commissioner, but only after obtaining the consent of the Imperial Government, which had special obligations to these territories.
The form of constitution adopted was as far removed as possible from that of the Australian Commonwealth, the latest confedera tion of British colonies before the Union of South Africa. There the aim had been to retain as much of the separate states' partic ularism as was consistent with any form of confederation. But in South Africa the constitution, as it came from the convention, formulated what was practically a unitary state for the whole of South Africa, with a truly sovereign parliament (subject of course to the purely nominal overriding power of the Imperial parlia ment), though with certain municipal rights left to the provinces, i.e., the former self-governing colonies.