An African Adventure

ud the world welter only three commanding personalities emerge. In England Lloyd George survives amid the storm of party clash and Irish discord. Down in Greece Venizel

rtunism. One reason why he holds his post is that there is no one to take his place,-another commentary on the paucity of greatness. There is no visible heir to Venizelos. Besides, Greece i

me Boer General, who fought Roberts and Kitchener twenty years ago, is battling with equal tenacity for the integrity of the Imperial Union born of that war. Not in all history perhaps, is revealed a more picturesq

ross the Western Front, and when the German submarines were making a shambles of the high seas. I heard him speak with persuasive force on public occasions and he was like a beacon in the gloom. He had come to England in 1917 as the representative of General Botha, the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa

her of the League of Nations idea, he believed that out of the immense travail would develop a larger

le urging. From my boyhood the land of Cecil Rhodes has always he

same serene, clear-thinking strategist who had raised his voice in the Allied Councils. Then the enemy was the German and the task was to destroy the menace of militarism. Now it was his own unreconstructed Boer-blood

iar to all readers of English novels. Like the P. & O. vessels that Kipling wrote about in his Indian stories, they are among the favori

thrilled the Portuguese adventurers of the fifteenth century when they swept for the first time into Table Bay. Behind the harbor rose Table Mountain

r, Basuto and Britisher, East Indian and Zulu. The hardy rancher and fortune-hunter from the North Country rub shoulders with the globe-trotter. In the bustling streets mo

g California. There is the sense of newness in the atmosphere, and something of the abandon that you encounter among the people of Australia and certain parts

es Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa,-the native outnumbers the white more than six to one and he is increasing at a much greater rate than the European. Hence you have a

with a note of welcome and inviting me to lunch with him at the House of Parliament the next day. In the letter, among other thing

om khaki to mufti-and few men can stand up under this transition without losing some of the character of their personal appearance,-he remained a striking figure. There is something wistful in his face-an indescribable look that projects itself not only through you but beyond. It is not exactly preoccupation but a highly

South African political situation. Parliament had just convened after an historic election in which the Nationalists, the bitter antagonists of Botha and Smuts, had elected a majority of representatives for the first time. Smuts was ha

hat-be were praying that this blonde and bearded Boer could successfully man the imperial breach. Yet he sat there smiling and unafraid and the com

lative halls, others out in the country at Groote Schuur, the Prime Minister's residence, where we walked amid the gardens t

our that made the fullest test of his resource and statesmanship. Clearly to understand it you must first know something about th

ical uplifters, our population is loyally dedicated to the American flag and the institutions it represents. With us Latin, Slav, Celt, and Saxon have blended the strain that proved its mettle as "Americans All" under the Stars and Stri

utchman is a tenacious and stubborn person. Although the Huguenots emigrated to the Cape in considerable force in the seventeenth century and intermarried with the transplanted Hollanders, the D

independence. What is known as "The Great Trek" of the thirties, which opened up the Transvaal and subsequently the Orange Free State and Natal, was due entirely to unrest among the Cape Boers. There is something of the epic in the narrative of those doughty, psalm-singing trekkers who, like the Mormons in

er of fact the Boer is distinct among individualists. "Oom Paul" Kruger was a type. A fairly familiar story will concretely illustrate what lies within and behind the r

ho read the Good Word three times a day, drank prodigious quantities of coffee, spoke "taal" the Dutch dialect, and reared a huge family. B

element that rebelled in arms against the constituted authority in 1914 and had to be put down with merciless hand. This element now seeks to achieve through more peaceful ends what it sought to do by force the moment Britain became involved in the Gre

arded the Briton as an "Uitlander"-an outsider-and treated him as an undesirable alien. In the Transvaal and the Orange Free State he was denied the rights that are accorded to law-abiding citizens in other count

es a dominion as free as Australia or Canada. England sends out a Governor-General, usually a high-placed and titled person but he is a be-medalled figure-head,-an ornamental feature of the landscape. H

e-table is printed in both English and Dutch. The tie of language is a strong one and this eternal and unuttered p

re of South Africa was greater than the smaller and selfish issue of racial pride and prejudice, he rallied his open-minded and far-seeing countrymen around him. Out of this group developed the South African Party which remains the party of the Du

ecome his Colonial Minister, or more technically, Minister of the Interior, was Smuts, who had left his law office in Johannesburg to fight the English in 1900 and who displayed the same consummate strategy in the field that he has since

ich still bore the scars of war was turned to plenty. He was a farmer and he bent his energy and leadership to the rebuilding of the shattered

ile trying to escape across the Vaal River, DeWet was defeated in the field, De la Rey was accidentally shot, and Maritz became a fugitive. Botha then conquered the Germans in German South-West Africa and Smuts subsequently took over

e business, past and present. Who i

n Orange Free State lawyer who had won distinction on the Bench. He helped to frame the Union Constitution and on the day he signed it, declared that it was a

he fought it tooth and nail. In fiery utterances attacking the Government he denounced Botha as a jingoist and an imperialist. Just about this time he made the famous speech in which he stated his

ho called upon his colleague either to suppress his particular brand of anathema or

rnment fell, and the Cabinet dissolved automatically. Hertzog was left out in the cold. The Governor-General

p to this time had been merely a party of opposition, into what was rapidly becoming a flaming secession movement. The South African Party

concentrated on Smuts. Many of his meetings became bloody riots. He was the target for rotten fruit and on one occasion an attempt was made

ighting the Germans and Smuts had gone to England to help mould the Allied fortunes. The Nationalist leader made hay while the re

ikander Bond, was unfurled from the masthead and the sedition spread. It not only recruited the Boers who had an ancient grievance against Great Britain, but many others who secretly resented the Botha and

and as a result there has been much intermarriage between Briton and Boer. The English in South Africa bear the same relation to the Nationalist movement there that

arry on his Government with a minority. To add to his troubles, the Labour Party,-always an uncertain proposition,-increased its representation from a mere handful to twenty-one, while the Unionists, who comprise the straight

nt a revolt from Britain-all in the face of a bitter and hostile majority. On the other hand was Hertzog, bent on secession and with a solid array of discontents behind him. The two former comrades of

tograph Copyright S