Smuts Out

General Rt. Hon. Jan Christiaan Smuts, Premier of the Union of South Africa, was the last of the big men* who attended the Paris Peace Conference to encounter political defeat.

The results of the U. S. A. (Union of South Africa) elections were a foregone conclusion (TIME, June 16), and the fact that the South Africa Party, of which General Smuts is the leader, was defeated by a coalition of the Nationalists and Laborites, who will now have a majority of more than 20 in the new Parliament, occasioned little surprise. The personal defeat of the Premier at Pretoria West was also not unexpected. He is, however, to stand for reelection at Standerton in the Transvaal, that seat having been offered by a Colonel G. M. Claassen who is to resign.

It was not known whether Premier Smuts would resign because of the unfavorable results of the elections, or whether he would await defeat in the Assembly on a vote of confidence.

In a message of thanks to his campaign committee he said: "Be of good cheer. From the wider viewpoints which shape the national policy, our failure may yet prove a blessing in disguise. My faith in the future remains as strong as ever, although the immediate outlook before the county is gloomy enough. In that faith we hold on unflinchingly."

The next U. S. A. Cabinet will almost certainly be a Nationalist-Labor coalition headed by the Nationalist leader, General James Barry Munnik Hertzog, who, 58 years ago, was born in Cape Colony.

General Hertzog, like General Smuts and the late General Botha, fought against Britain in the Boer War. Unlike them, however, he has not become entirely reconciled to British rule and was gravely criticized for his part in the rebellion of 1914. He is known for his "segregation-of-the-natives policy" (disenfranchisement of the natives)** and his "two stream policy"* (secession).

As regards the much-mooted question of secession from the British Commonwealth, General Hertzog said, in a speech at Ladysmith, that his is not a secession policy; that he is almost an imperialist. This is, of course, a reversal of his former attitude and precisely how far his followers go in supporting him was not known. It is certain, however, that secession will not be put forward by a Hertzog Government, because the terms of the Nationalist- Labor compact expressly forbid any attempt to test the question of a secession of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal from the Commonwealth.

The remainder of his policy is concerned with matters of taxation and the amelioration of labor troubles. Being situated in the same position as the Labor Party in London--that is, dependent upon Labor support to override the Opposition as the Labor Party in London is dependent upon Liberal support to overrule the Conservatives--the Nationalists cannot take any radical step without incurring their defeat, because the Labor Party in the U. S. A. is mostly British.

*Chief among the others: Ex-Premier Nitti of Italy, ex-Premier Clemenceau of France, the late ex-President Woodrow Wilson of the U. S., ex-Premier Lloyd George of Britain.

**Natives are distinct from colored people, according to General Hertzog. Natives are apparently the uncultured indigenous population; the colored people are educated blacks.

*In a speech at Grahamstown, General Hertzog once said: "The national life in South Africa flows forth in two streams, each stream having its own language, manners, great men .heroic deeds and noble characters; that this is so is due to history, and nobody is to be blamed and each has his right to the appreciation of the other. When we have developed such a national spirit that we consider these matters as common to both sections, both English and Dutch will say: 'Your language, heroic deeds and great men are ours because we are both "Afrikanders." ' "