19 FEBRUARY 1910, Page 2

Moreover, the first Union Ministry will have to appoint the

Administrators of the Provincial Governments, the Attorneys- General, the Court of Appeal, the Civil Service Commission, and other officials and official bodies. Surely it is desirable that such appointments should not rest in the hands of a

single party. On Friday week Dr. Jameson answered Mr. Merriman's speech at Cape Town. Mr. Merriman had argued that coalition had been tried but had always failed. But Dr. Jameson pointed with much effect to Sir John Macdonald's Coalition Ministry which achieved the confederation of Canada. In Canada there was just such a racial difficulty as there is in South Africa, but the Coalition triumphed because it was mistrusted by neither side. Dr. Jameson accused Mr. Merriman of wantonly trying to revive the bad old days. The Cape Town correspondent of the Times says that it is doubtful whether the moderates of the South African Party will follow Mr. Merriman, and that there is still hope of a Botha- Jameson-Malan combination.