Blackamoor Bill

An eleventh hour attempt to swing South Africa's coming General Election by virtually disenfranchising the Negroes of Cape Colony was made last week by Prime Minister James Barry Munnik Hertzog. "We have paused on the brink of a sure and certain abyss," read a Hertzog manifesto, "and the question is: Shall the white race in Africa plunge down to final destruction?" As alternative General Hertzog offered to Parliament a bill which would deprive the Cape Province Negroes of their present "equal franchise," but would permit them to separately elect five white M. P.s--whereas they have had a deciding vote in choosing at least twelve M. P.s heretofore. The Cape Province blackamoors are all partisans of Prime Minister Hertzog's deadly rival, General Jan Christiaan Smuts.

As the measure neared a vote, last week, General Smuts flayed General Hertzog for dragging the great and vital "race question" into party politics. Every South African election is bound to be just another dogfight between Generals Hertzog and Smuts; but there is indeed something awful and "above party" about the fact that throughout the Union of South Africa white skins are in a minority of one to four. That is the "race question," and it may well trouble every British paleface from the King-Emperor down.

"The British Empire is the greatest force for good the world has ever seen and possibly ever will see!" exclaimed General Smuts to correspondents, "The greatest problem before South Africa is the living together in peace and cooperation of a white and a black population. . . . If we fail in its solution, our white population is doomed in Africa, and this continent will continue on its road of immemorial barbarism!"

Only a trained ear would detect in this powerful pronouncement the fact that General Smuts was weasling and must weasle every word he says about the "race problem." True, the Negroes of Cape Colony vote for him, but they are the only blacks in all South Africa who are enfranchised; and in all the other provinces General Smuts draws his support from whites who are fanatically opposed to giving their blackamoor neighbors the ballot.

Seldom has there been a national political situation more grotesque. General Hertzog remains Prime Minister by virtue of a slim, coalition majority in the House of Assembly--a majority constantly threatened by the Negro-elected Cape Province M. P.s. In the Senate the Smuts party reigns supreme, holding 25 seats out of 40. Thus the House and Senate negate each other on almost every important bill, and showdowns must be constantly had under the Constitutional provision that both chambers shall sit, fight, and vote jointly when unable to come to an agreement as separate bodies. The bill which Prime Minister Hertzog was trying to jam through last week, contained an especially neat little joker which would have given the never-yet-enfranchised Negroes outside of Cape Province the right to elect three Senators. Of course these blackamoor-elected Senators would be Hertzog men, and would cut down the Smuts majority in the Senate. At the same time the Smuts blackamoor-elected following in the House would be cut from 12 to 5 as previously explained.

Picturesque Jan Christiaan Smuts was on hand in Cape Town for the Parliamentary fray, last week, having come in from his tiny, iron-roofed shack on the veldt near Pretoria. There he recently completed, in philosophical mood, a work called Holism, setting forth "a philosophy of life reconciling everything within the Universe."

Mrs. Smuts is what ladies call "a very good and exceedingly plain woman." When the General was Prime Minister (1919-1924), she was not to be dissuaded from appearing at the most glittering State banquets in homely carpet slippers with a knitted shawl over her old-fashioned ''party dress." Withal, however, Mrs. Smuts seems to get on very placidly with her doughty General, who, during the War, captured most of German South Africa for the Empire.

Solemnly at last the Parliament of the Union of South Africa voted on General Hertzog's bill while General Smuts watched, tense and grim. The official tally gave the measure a majority of five votes --but a two-thirds majority was required to make it law. A mirthless, triumphant smile twisted the lips of General Smuts. He had won this preliminary skirmish, but the real dogfight will be the General Election, now scheduled for next June.