General Smuts' Triumph
The South African General Election has resulted in a victory for General Smuts and the supporters of his war policy far more sweeping than the most sanguine prophets had anticipated. The United Party comes in easily first with a majority of 25 over all others, while the total " pro-war " strength is t to representatives in the House of Assembly, against which the Opposition, consisting of Nationalists, have only 43 ; the Afrikander Party under Dr. Havenga, on whom fell the mantle of Hertzog, has been completely eliminated. General Smuts stood simply for the whole-hearted co-operation of South Africa with the rest of the British Commonwealth of Nations in the vigorous prosecution of the war, and for a policy of national reconstruction after the war. The other parties had nothing to offer but separatist nationalism, or Nazism, or Communism, ang appealed in each case to sectional interests. General Smuts through- out has kept attention fixed on the wider principles that are at stake—the principles of international justice and the solidarity of the Commonwealth of Nations in support of it. He now has his mandate to go ahead in the vigorous prosecution of the war in conjunction with the Allies, and at the same time becomes free to devote more of his energy to plans of social and economic reform at home. It may be the South African statesman's last Parliament ; it is satis- factory that he has been given so commanding a position—though there is always the danger that too comfortable a majority may disintegrate.
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