Rhodesia, Swaziland and Bechuanaland Protectorate.— A section of the South Africans—and notably General Smuts— was desirous, when in 1922 the British South Africa Co.'s regime in Rhodesia came to an end, to incorporate that country in the Union. The issue was left to the vote of the settlers in Rhodesia, who, in spite of the very favourable terms offered them by Smuts, preferred to have an independent and responsible Government of their own. To this incorporation the Imperial Government would have offered no objection; but it was different with a proposal mooted in 1924 for the incorporation of Swaziland and Bechuana land, over which the Imperial Government exercised a protec torate. Here the white settlers are few compared with the natives, on whose behalf the Imperial Government has undertaken special responsibilities, and, as the natives do not appear to be anxious for the change, it is not likely to be effected in the near future.
The Hertzog Ministry and the Flag Question.—Botha, the first prime minister of the Union, died in Aug. 1919. On Gen eral Smuts, his devoted follower, naturally fell his mantle. He had aroused suspicion among the Dutch by his participation in im perial affairs and the lukewarmness attributed to him in supporting the Dutch point of view when it conflicted with that of the British; by his conduct in combating the various strikes on the Rand he had made a bitter enemy of the growing labour party led by Col. Creswell. In 192o, after a general election he found himself in a minority in the house, and, after one more effort to heal the breach with Hertzog and his Nationalists, he saw there was noth ing for it but a junction with the Unionists, who had given general support to Botha and himself since 1914. In 1921 he formed a coalition ministry with them and in the ensuing general election improved his position in the house. At the same time the Nationalists, an entirely Dutch party, and the Labour party, predominantly English, were tending towards an alliance which was practically consummated in 1923. The alarm felt by the Labour leaders at the talk of Hertzog's supporters of a desire to cut adrift from the empire was overcome by assurances from Hertzog. The parties found much in common in their native poli cies, the Labour party being determined to limit the Kafirs to purely unskilled work, and the Nationalists for somewhat different reasons being anxious to keep them frankly in subjection to the Europeans. The most hopeful result of these two alliances, Labour Nationalist and South African-Unionist, was that parties were not divided on national lines, but each an admixture of Boers and English.
Smuts once more went to the country in 1924, after a defeat at a by-election, and found himself in a minority of 27. Hertzog then formed a ministry of Nationalist and Labour elements and introduced the native and labour legislation already described. But the measure which stirred the country to its depths and at one time threatened to split the ministerial coalition was the Flag Bill of 1926. To take the place of the Union Jack the Nationalists demanded a new flag for the Union, which should express something of the history of the Afrikander nation and especially the traditions of the old republics. This was only reasonable, but unfortunately in the flag originally suggested prac tically every symbol of the imperial connection had been elimi nated. All those of English blood, including many of the Labour party, were at once up in arms and the controversy was so acute that a decision was wisely postponed for that year. Shortly after wards followed the imperial conference at which the new and almost independent status of the dominions was defined in a docu ment of which Hertzog, who had helped to draft it, said that it "lays a deep and enduring foundation for national cooperation by members of the British Commonwealth of Nations." But on his return the flag controversy was revived, Natal threatened to se cede and opinion was even more enflamed than before, when, by one of those suddenly inspired compromises, by which, before now, South Africans have averted a calamitous breach, the bitterness of the struggle was assuaged, and a place found in the new national flag for the Union Jack. In 1933 Hertzog formed a National Gov ernment in coalition with Smuts.