he maintained, were de Wet, Beyers and their following. Their action was only " an armed protest " against the invasion of German S. West Africa. 1 Nor did Hertzog and his parliamen- tary supporters modify their attitude; they sought to gain at the polls what the rebels had tried to gain arms in hand. But Gen. Botha had no difficulty in enrolling thousands of Boer volunteers for the campaign in German S. West Africa; the force raised for that purpose was composed almost equally of Dutch and British S. Africans. The campaign ended in the surrender of the Germans on July 9 1915, and on his return home Botha received a triumphal welcome from Boer and Briton alike. Popular feeling against Germany had become intense with the sinking of the " Lusitania," which led to serious riots; in Johannes- burg alone damage to German property estimated at 500,000 was done.
After the conquest of German S. W. Africa Nationalist hostil- ity was aroused by the beginning of recruitment for service in Europe. The response to the appeal for volunteers, Forces considering the hostility of the Nationalists, was r . alse .t excellent. First to last the Union (apart from forces
lor War
Service. used in suppressing the rebellion) raised 146,515
men for service in the World War, and of these over 30,000 served in Europe and 43,000 in E. Africa. These fig- ures refer only to whites. Including the native labour contin- gents and the coloured combatant corps from the Cape provi- inces the total personnel of the S.A. forces on war service was 231,591. The casualties numbered 18,642, including 6,606 dead. None knew better than Gens. Botha and Smuts how deeply they were distrusted by a large section of the Dutch community.
The general election held on Oct. 20 1915, fought
on t ' le * ssucs ra i se< i by the rebellion, gave a very Kis. fair indication of the strength of the Dutch irrecon-
cilables. Botha had appealed to the electors to sink their differences and " see the war through." Out of a total of 130 seats in the House of Assembly the S.A. (Botha's) party gained 54, the Nationalists (Hertzogites) 27 and the Unionist (mainly British) party 40. Labour, out of favour after the in- dustrial upheaval, gained only three seats and there were six Independents (all anti-Hertzogites). Most of the Nationalist members were returned for constituencies situated in the dis- tricts where the rebellion had been. The luck of the ballot was with Botha and the Unionists for the figures of the poll showed the Nationalist strength to be greater than the number of seats secured. The figures were: South African party 93,374 votes, Nationalists 78,301, Unionists 48,484, Labour 25,305, Indepen- dents 12,029. Some 75% of the electors voted.
As a result of the election Botha was dependent for continuance in office on the support of the Unionists, and this was ungrudging- ly given. There was some talk of Sir Thomas Smartt and other leaders of the Unionists joining the Ministry, but this was not done. The cordial support given by the Unionists to Gen. Botha was the more valuable as the Nationalists continued their agita- tion and increased their demands. Hertzog's efforts were power- less to affect the policy of the Cabinet but they led to increased bitterness in S. Africa. The Government had, nevertheless, no difficulty in securing volunteers for service in German E. Africa. The appointment of Gen. Smuts as commander of the British forces there entailed his absence from the Cape, an ab- sence prolonged by his selection early in 1917 as a member of the Imperial War Cabinet in London. This was a serious loss to Botha in the conduct of home policy.
After Steyn's death (in Nov. 1916) Hertzog became more openly hostile than ever to the imperial connexion. At Stellenbosch
in May 1917 he declared that S. Africa's autonomy Propa- fcan (zelfstandigheid) entitled her to remain neutral in the xauda. war and that no real self-government could exist
without independence of all other countries, including Great Britain. "The only bond that binds us together," he said, "is our common King but under him we each stand separately and independent of each other." But even " the common bond "
1 In a proclamation issued by Beyers and de Wet on Oct. 29^1914, they signed themselves " generals of the protesting burghers."
was irksome, and the logical outcome of Hertzog's policy was seen in the adoption by the Nationalist party of republicanism as a plank in their programme, to be achieved " by steady con- stitutional pressure." The opposite policy was seen that year in operation in London. General Smuts was sitting in the Cabinet with equality of status with that of the ministers of the United Kingdom, and the Imperial War Conference of that year (1917) declared the Dominions to be " autonomous nations of an Imperial Commonwealth with an adequate voice in foreign policy." The adoption of republicanism in the Nationalist .platform was strongly resented in the Union and on the motion of Mr. Merriman who voiced very accurately the feelings of most of the Cape province Dutchmen a motion condemning republican propaganda was carried (June 18 1917) by 72 votes to 21. The propaganda, however, grew in virulence. There was, said Gen. Botha in 1918, an agitation on foot to establish a re- public by violent means.
It will be seen that throughout the World War S.A. had been divided by bitter racial strife. It was not, however, the traditional clash betweed Briton and Boer, but a combination of Boer and Briton against a section of the Boer community, and this marked an advance on old conditions. Nor were all those who gave Hertzog their votes really prepared to follow him to all lengths. But the defeat of Germany brought no respite in the Nationalist agitation it rather increased, nor did it require much astuteness for Hertzog to fix upon President Wilson's declarations in favour of self-determination as a weapon. The last half of 1918 was, however, noteworthy in S.A. for other than political happenings. In the influenza epidemic which swept over the world S.A. suffered very severely. Influenza attacked both the white and coloured population and was most severe in the Cape peninsula. A total of 54,899 deaths were registered in Aug.-Dec. 1918. Of these, 11,510 were among whites and of these 6,094 occurred in the Cape province. (There was a recurrence of the epidemic in 1919, but in a milder form.)
As soon as the World War ended Gen. Botha was summoned to London 2 where he joined Gen. Smuts. They represented S.A. throughout the peace negotiations and both were signatories of the Treaty of Versailles, under which S. Natloaal- A. and the other British Dominions became original sj//-d" members of the League of Nations. The counter- mlnatloa. measures of the Nationalists failed. No sooner had hostilities ceased than the central committee of their organization sent a note to President Wilson expressing their desire to lay before him their aspiration that the principle of self-determina- tion should be applied as much to the S.A. people as to " other small nations." Mr. Wilson declined to interfere. General Hertzog was at heart most concerned to regain independence for the ex-Dutch republics. Thus in a debate initiated by Sir Thomas Smartt on the republican propaganda in the House of Assembly in Feb. 1919 he maintained the right of the Free State to break away from the Union. At the opening of the session in Jan. one of his henchmen, Mr. Tielman Roos, in the debate on the resolution congratulating King George on the victory of the Allies, had moved an amendment declaring that peace could only be maintained by the " complete application " of the prin- ciple of self-determination enunciated by the Allied and Associated Powers. This amendment had been defeated by 73 votes to 20.
Hoping to get some advantage out of the struggle going on around the Peace Conference table in Paris Gen. Hertzog and certain of his colleagues determined to visit Europe. Hertzog held that the question of the Union as a whole becoming a re- public was a matter in which Great Britain had no voice, but meanwhile Great Britain might " redress the wrong done to the ex-Dutch republics by restoring to them their freedom." He and his colleagues would lay their case before the Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George. When it was announced that a Nationalist di-putation would leave for England, trouble arose. The crews of the mail steamers intimated that they would not put to sea if Gen. Hertzog and his colleagues were passengers. This difficulty was met by the offer to bring them over to England in a British
2 In Botha's absence Mr. F. S. Malan was acting Prime Minister. -
