The South African and Unionist parties in conference at Pretoria
have decided that the Union Parliament shall le dissolved on December 31st; and that the General Election shall take place on February 8th. The Cape Town correspondent of the Times says that the Nationalists have been taken by surprise, as they had not anticipated that General Smuts would dare to appeal to the country. They evidently forgot that General Smuts is as good a soldier as he is a lawyer, and that surprise is of the essence of war. The issue at the election will be the Republican question and nothing else. Shall the Union of South Africa secede from the British Empire ? It 113 to avoid what would be a catastrophe that the Central Party, composed of a fusion of the South African and Unionist Parties, has been formed. Sir Thomas Smartt, the leader of the Unionist Party, has appealed to his followers to transfer the support they have given to him for years to General Smuts. It is impossible to praise too highly this splendid act of self-denial. We can have no doubt whatever that such patriotic and on- egotistical acts as those of General Smuts and Sir Thomas Smartt will have their reward and that the Union will he saved.
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