Now that the South African Parliament has met again, General
Smuts will have to face a situation of no little difficulty, for his majority of 25 has dwindled in the past two years to 15. A " working agree- ment," based very largely on dislike of General Smuts, has been reached between General Hertzog's Nationalist followers and the Labour Party ; for to the Nationalists General Smuts is the man who maintains the Imperial connexion and to the Labour Party he is the friend of the mining magnates of the Rand and the upholder of Capitalism. Whether such an alliance will hold together is questionable, because the Backveld Boer has little enough in common with the advanced Labourite, who desires to run the country in the interests of " the workers." -A Coalition Government formed by the two parties seems beyond the range of practical politics, but for the purposes of opposition dislike of General Smuts may be a sufficient bond. In the meantime, it is not without humour to notice the perplexities of the Backvelders in the Transvaal and Orange Free State, who view with dismay the recent departure of the Nationalist leaders from the ideal of a Dutch Republic.
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