General Hertzog
Although the new Imperial Constitution is on trial— and trial cannot be wholly exempt from error—all the signs are good. Consider one of these signs. When General Hertzog, the Prime Minister of the South African Union, came to the Imperial Conference, he said plainly that he had the utmost difficulty in satisfying torrfe=of his most powerful critics who demanded that Dominion independence should be clinched by a direct statement from the Imperial Conference that every Dominion had the right to secede. lie added that he could not contemplate returning to 'South- Africa Until that was admitted. Contrast with his doubts thezi the • confidence with which he addressed a Nationalist women's meeting at Bloemfontein on December 2nd. He said that apart from Preferential Tariffs the Dominions had not;askect for a single thing which they did not get. Net only did they get everything, but everything was
granted readily. South Africa had reached " manhood's estate." On Wednesday he spoke even more firmly in denouncing the whole Republican movement.
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