22 JUNE 1929, Page 1

News of the Week South Africa T HE General Election in

South Africa was a success for General Hertzog, who returns with a clear majority for his Nationalist Party. It is a disappointment to thOse who admired General Botha's policy, and who learned during the War, and still more during the Peace Confeiince, and even from his writings, to believe that heneral Smuts is now the ablest South African living. The election was largely fought on General Hertzog's policy._ r Of disfranchising the natives. The flag contro- versy, ;if remembered, was not prominent, nor was the Commercial Treaty.-with Germany as conspicuous as we expected. It would be absurdto suggest that every . . . _ . supporter, or even many supporters, of General Hertzog wants.;to " wallop his own nigger," but wherever that spirit survives at all he found support. We have pointed out in a leading article the danger of an illiberal policy in South Africa when. Rhodesia is, feeling its way to development. and .wHien 1-1.M,'s late . Government has been so anxiously seeking to do its duty by the natives of East Africa.