act the rekindling of the fires of racial bitterness. The by-election campaign at Albany, caused by the resignation of Sir Starr Jameson, brought about a crisis. General Botha, and with him Gen. Smuts and the majority of the Dutch members of the Cabinet, had definitely accepted the British connexion, and the position of S.A. as a self-governing member of an Imperial Commonwealth, with corresponding responsibilities, and, know- ing that peace between the two white races was essential to the prosperity of the country, he was an ardent advocate of the closest cooperation between them. On both these points Hertzog was violently opposed to his colleagues. His motto " South Africa first " meant in fact Dutch supremacy. In a speech at Nylstroom (Oct. 1912) he characterized Sir Thomas Smartt (who had succeeded Jameson as leader of the Unionist party) and other prominent members of the Opposition as " undesirable political foreign adventurers," and at Rustenburg, on Dec. 8, he declared that imperialism appealed to him only when it was useful to S. Africa. He had a short time previously pronounced in favour of the Dutch and British in S.A. remaining " two nationalities flowing each in a separate channel." General Botha though he publicly dissented from Gen. Hertzog's views was desirous if possible to avoid an open breach, but after the Rusten- burg speech action was unavoidable. On Dec. 1 2 Col. Leuchers, Minister of Public Works and a Natal member of Parliament, resigned as a protest against Hertzog's " anti-British and anti- imperial sentiments." Botha then intimated to Hertzog that his resignation would be acceptable, but Hertzog refused to move. Botha met this difficulty by tendering his own resignation, Dec. 15, and was at once asked by the governor-general (Lord Gladstone) to form a new Ministry. This he had accomplished by Dec. 20, the new Cabinet being composed of the same mem- bers as the old except for the omission of Gen. Hertzog and Col. Leuchers (the latter replaced by Sir Thos. Watt, another Natal member). The death of two ministers Mr. Sauer and Mr. Fischer during 1913 necessitated a further remodelling of the Cabinet. Mr. N. J. de Wet became Minister of Justice and Mr. H. C. Van Heerden Minister of Agriculture. 1
The cleavage in the ranks of the ministerialists (the S.A. party) became complete in 1913. It was soon apparent that the appeal to Dutch racialism had considerable support, notably in the O.F.S., and some 10 or 12 members of the House of Assembly elected as supporters of Gen. Botha turned to Hertzog as their leader. At the party conference opened at Cape Town on Nov. 30 Gen. de Wet nominated ex-President Steyn as " leader of the party outside Parliament, with power to nominate the Prime Minister." On this proposal being defeated the mal- contents left the conference in a body and in Jan. 1914 a new party under Hertzog's leadership was formed. It took the title of the Nationalist party.
The year 1913 and the opening months of 1914 were, however, as notable for labour unrest as for political differences. The disturbances in Natal due to the opposition of the ta"fr Indians to the Asiatic legislation of the Union have Riot*. already been recorded. They caused no such trouble as attended disturbances on the Rand, which began with a strike of the white miners at the New Kleinfontein mine in May 1913. The strike was nominally on the question of hours, but it was symptomatic of a determination of Labour to gain greater control over industrial conditions. There was, too, a revolutionary wing to the movement, and the extremists seemed likely to carry with them the mass of the men. 2 The two antag- onistic views were afterwards sharply put by Gen. Smuts and Mr. Creswell, the latter the leader of the parliamentary Labour
The year 1913 witnessed the death of other prominent S. Afri- cans : Sir Gordon Sprigg, four times Prime M inister of Cape Colony, Sir Richard Solomon, High Commissioner in London of the Union, and Dinizulu, the son of Cetywayo. Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, formerly Governor of Natal and of Cape Colony, also died in 1913. Sir R. Solomon was succeeded as High Commissioner by Mr. W. P. Schreiner, who died in 1919. Sir Edgar Walton was appointed High Commissioner in 1921.
1 The white employees in the mines were almost equally divided between those born in S.A. and those born in the United Kingdom. The foreign born were scarcely 5%.
party. Smuts declared the movement to have been " a con- spiracy against constituted order." Mr. Creswell declared that there was " a conspiracy (of the Govt.) with capitalists to run the country in their own interests." Neither view gave a satis- factory explanation of the facts. The strike extended, negotia- tions for a settlement failed, feeling ran high and by the end of June the Government had drafted 2,000 troops into the Benoni district, the centre of unrest, and some 20 m. E. of Johannes- burg. The leaders of the strike had chosen a time when the Union was without a regular armed force of its own. The citizen army provided by the Act of 1912 was not yet formed, while the militia and volunteers had been disbanded as from July i, and the permanent force the S.A. Mounted Riflemen pro- vided for in the Act of 1912, had only begun training in April (1913). British regulars were therefore drafted into Johannes- burg, where serious rioting followed a demonstration by the men in Market Sq. (July 4). The strikers seized the electric power station, and during a night of terror burned down the Park railway station and the offices of the Star newspaper. Several persons were killed and many injured in conflicts with the police and military. The next morning Gens. Botha and Smuts intervened and opened negotiations with the strikers. While these were going on dynamite explosions occurred and the mob attacked the Rand club. The negotiators succeeded in reaching agreement and at night the strike was declared "off", one condition being the reinstatement of the men at the New Kleinfontein mine. But it was difficult to appease the mob and there was further rioting on July 6. In all some 20 persons were killed and 250 injured. A grave element of danger was the excited condition of the native labourers on the Rand mines and it was- in part consideration of what they might do if the riots continued that drew the authorities and the strike leaders together. The situation continued anxious, as extremists were calling for a new and general strike. But on July 31 the executive of the Federa- tion of Trades decided by 65 votes against 18 not to call a general strike. An official inquiry into labour conditions was then instituted, but in Jan. 1914 new trouble arose. A policy of re- trenchment on the railways was resented by the men and a general strike proclaimed for Jan. 14. It was, according to the official view, an attempt by the Trades' Federation to control the railway administration. The Government acted promptly (Gen. Smuts was at the time both Minister of Defence and Minis- ter of the Interior). Martial law was proclaimed and 20,000- troops mobilized and concentrated on the Rand. Ten prominent Labour leaders not including Mr. Creswell were arrested and secretly deported, illegal action for which the Government sub- sequently obtained an Act of indemnity. In Parliament Gen. Smuts justified his action on the ground stated, namely that the leaders of the men were engaged in a revolutionary conspiracy. The action of the Government had, in any case, prevented a renewal of the rioting of 1913 though a large number of outrages- occurred. Ameliorative measures were then tried and during 1914 an Industrial Disputes Act was passed. It set up machinery intended to render easier the settlement of disputes and this Act was followed in subsequent years by other measures such as the Factory Act of 1918 -designed to improve labour conditions.
In 1914 Lord Gladstone's term of office as Governor-General and High Commissioner expired and he returned to England shortly before the outbreak of the World War. His successor was Mr. Sydney Buxton, who on his appointment was created a viscount. Lord Buxton assumed office in Sept. 1914.
The outbreak of the World War tested S.A. in a manner in which no other British Dominion was tested. Twelve years- only had passed since the Boers had been in arms against Great Britain, they had long and bitter mem- cries and all the ties of kinship, affection, a common war. tongue and a common heritage which powerfully influ- enced the British in S.A. were in them lacking. The spirit of racialism had revived, and a large number of the Dutch were led to believe that the war was no concern of theirs and that S.A. should remain neutral. A smaller section actively sympathized with Germany and a few prominent Boers had entered into rela-
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