South Africa Boiling Up
It becomes clearer every day that the Nationalist Government of Dr. Malan has decided to drop even the pretence of moderation. It is pressing on with its iniquitous Citizenship Bill, which makes it necessary for immigrants to wait for five years before applying for voting rights, puts the grant of those rights at the sole discretion of the Minister of the Interior, and omits all reference to the common status of South African citizens as members of the British Common- wealth. If there was ever any reason for resisting the impression that this Bill sacrifices unity to a particularly narrow and vicious form of nationalism, the debate in the Union Parliament would have removed it. Any pretence that Dr. Malan's Government was merely bringing the citizenship law up to date, in view of the generally acknowledged breakdown of the doctrine of a single nationality in the British Commonwealth, was dispelled when the sweeping terms of the Bill were announced. Any hope that the issue would be discussed in a statesmanlike manner disappeared when the Govern- ment refused to appoint a select committee, or to modify its intention to rush the Bill through Parliament in the present session. Even the suspicion that one purpose of the Bill was to prevent the 40,000 new immigrants from voting for the United Party at the next election has been confirmed by the refusal of the Minister of the Interior, Dr. Donges, to drop the clause which makes the residence clause retroactive. All the worst features of Afrikaner nationalism are coming to the surface. Dr. Malan's hint that the Government would make concessions in committee has been belied by the list of unimportant amendments now issued and by the refusal to allow more than 14 hours for the committee stage of the debate. The split between Afrikaners and British has been opened wide once more. The only reasonable hope is that Dr. Malan will concede that the smallness of his majority, the importance of the issue and the strength of the public outcry make it essential for him to go to the country in a General Election.
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