The why and the wherefore of South African nationalism in
its Dutch setting is ably defined and illustrated in General Ilertzog by L. E. Neame (Hurst and Blackett, 180. The author, a well-known South African political journalist, has produced a workmanlike biography, which succeeds in giving due proportion to the central figure and to his background. That the Boers of the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal had a legitimate grievance against a British policy which sought in effect " the denationalization of a people through the medium of the schools " is now seen by those of us who have come to understand minorities' problems in Europe. A man of Hertzog's temperament and training (he took his degree in Amsterdam, whereas Smuts went to Cambridge), from being the champion of the Free State Dutch was bound to end up as a champion of the South African Dutch generally. The Prithe Minister of the Union has mellowed considerably, and we may hope that the responsible leaders of South Africa will be able to direct the two streams in which the life of the people runs. Even to-day, however, the British-born will do well to recall and ponder over Thomas Paine's dictum, quoted here, " it was equally as mitch from her manners as from her injustice that England lost the American Colonies," for it is certain that a similar " social disdain " is at the bottom of much of the racial ill-feeling in South Africa.
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