MINORITY GOVERNMENTS
Six,—In commenting son my article The Odds for 195o, Miss Lakeman suggests that the victory of Dr. Malan in South Africa shows that "our elections are a gamble, and a dangerous gamble." There is, however, an important difference between the electoral systems of the Union and
Britain. In South Africa the distribution of seats gives unduly large representation to the rural areas. Those areas are predominantly Afrikaner, and the increased support which Dr. Malan's parties gained among the rural Afrikaner electors was thus reflected by disproportionate gains in Parliament. In Britain, on the contrary, there is no equally marked localisation of support in areas which have too many representa- tives and the representation of which is as important in our House of more than 600 members as is the representation of these Afrikaner areas in the Union's House of 150 members.—Yours faithfully,
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