17 MARCH 1923, Page 9

The path of the Union Government in South Africa is

not exactly strewn with roses at the present time, and the defeat at a by-election last week of the Government supporter, Mr. Schoeman, an ex-Nationalist, by his former friends caused much surprise and disappointment. A Government majority of 115 was turned into a majority of 527 for General Herzog. The well-informed Cape Town correspondent of the Times attributes the defeat of General Smuts's supporter to the Government's inefficient organization in the Cape Province and to " the grossest misrepresentations about the Government's policy and its connexion with the mining interests:" The South African Government is not having much luck in the constituencies at the moment, although it has done much better in Parliament than was expected by some of its critics.