The Union of South Africa

These measures, owing to the difficulty of finding a generally acceptable solution of the whole problem, have necessarily been of a piecemeal nature. The one serious attempt to deal with native policy as a whole has been put forward in General Hertzog's declaration of policy in 1925. He proposed to abolish the Cape franchise for natives and to substitute for it a system applicable to the whole Union, whereby the natives of South Africa should elect seven Europeans to represent them in the House of Assem secondly that additional land should be provided for the sole use of natives and that the system of native councils to decide on their own local affairs, which has been so successful in the Trans kei, should be largely extended. The whole tendency of these proposals is, it is evident, to raise even higher the barrier between Europeans and natives, on the avowed principle that the only method of retaining a white South Africa is by preventing either natives or Europeans from trenching on one another's preserves. In 1925, largely in deference to the labour section of his sup porters, Hertzog introduced the first instalment of his programme with the bill legalizing a "colour bar," whereby in certain districts natives, and Asiatics too, were to be absolutely prohibited from engaging in any skilled or semi-skilled employment where they might compete with Europeans and be confined to unskilled labour. This bill provoked intense opposition from the natives as also from Smuts's South African party and especially from those members used to the more liberal methods of the Cape : so bitter was the controversy that it was rejected by the Senate in 1925 and only passed into law in 1926 after a joint sitting of both houses. So far the other proposals in Hertzog's scheme, which have also evoked deep suspicion in the natives, have not been passed into law.

Asiatics.—In the Cape province the Asiatic, or Malay com munity as it was called, dating originally from the days of Dutch rule, has in time fitted itself harmoniously into the rest of the community: and a charming picture it is that Lady Duff Gordon gives in her Letters from the Cape (1927) of this community as she saw it in the early sixties. But difficulties have arisen from Asiatics at first (since 186o) imported under indenture from India to cultivate the Natal sugar plantations. There was at first nothing to prevent. these Indians, after finishing their indentures, from settling in the country with their families; and they not only did so but began spreading as small traders or market-gardeners into the Transvaal and the Free State. Soon all three colonies began to object to the settlement of this third great race in South Africa, already enough troubled with problems arising from the juxta position of Europeans and the sons of Ham. Smuts himself as minister of the Transvaal had already had much trouble with them and their redoubtable leader Gandhi on the very eve of Union. From the outset of the Union Government the trouble recurred in an aggravated form. The question did not merely affect South Africa, for the Indian Government took a deep interest in the complaints of its citizens and the Imperial Govern ment was much concerned at the difficulties experienced by mem bers of one part of the empire in another. But South Africa was

determined that no more Indians should be allowed to come into the country and become residents and that those already there should be restricted in their movements. After much disturbance and negotiation with India, the Immigrants' Act of 1913 was passed, which without directly mentioning Indians, stopped their immigration and retained the objectionable L3 tax on those left in the country; this act, however, of ter further agitation and nego tiation with Gandhi, was modified to his satisfaction by the aboli tion of the tax and other slight concessions. Until 1919 this arrangement held, when the Indians already domiciled in the Transvaal found themselves suddenly deprived of their right to hold property and trade by a Gold law of 1908; while in the Natal Indians lost the Natal franchise they had hitherto enjoyed, and a Class Areas bill was introduced empowering the government to segregate Asiatics in reserved areas. Once more excitement flared up in the Indian community and in India itself : finally an arrangement was made with representatives from India whereby Indian rights were respected and a distinguished Indian was permanently stationed in South Africa to look after his fellow countrymen's interests.

Labour Questions and Strikes.

One of the most notable developments since the Union has been the rise of a strong white labour party, with its strength centred chiefly on the Rand. Its programme resembles that of the Australian labour party with its emphasis on the maintenance of a high standard of wages and conditions of labour for all skilled and semi-skilled European workmen and the rigid exclusion of all but these from participa tion in such work. White labour had many grievances on the Rand and elsewhere that called for redress : trade unions were insufficiently recognized by mine managers; and the havoc of miners' phthisis, owing to inadequate precautions, was alarming. The first outburst occurred in 1913 when a strike occurred on the Rand owing to a dispute between a manager and some miners: for a time Johannesburg was at the mercy of the strikers until Botha and Smuts were forced to call in imperial troops, as the new citizen force was not yet organized. After some casualties a truce was patched up whereby the unions were recognized and remedies for other grievances were promised. But in the following year the trouble broke out afresh with redoubled violence. Owing to a dispute in the Natal coal-fields a general strike was pro claimed which affected not only the Rand but also the government railways. But this time Smuts was ready with his new citizen force. Sixty thousand men were hurried on to the Rand, martial law was proclaimed and within a week all the labour leaders in the Union had been arrested and ten of the chief agitators sum marily deported without trial. Smuts's excuse for this high-handed action was "that the Government could not run the ordinary risks of the law-courts"; but he was severely criticized for it not only in England but also in South Africa, where the Government's in demnity bill was hotly debated and was followed by a labour majority in the elections for the Transvaal Provincial Council.