General Smuts delivered a funeral oration at General Botha's grave
on Saturday last, remarking significantly that " for his friend was reserved the hard fate to bury him and to remain with a task which even for him was almost too much." General Smuts has succeeded General Botha as leader of the South African Party and as Prime Minister of the Union, with the same Cabinet as .before. The South African Parliament is about ,to-meet in order to ratify the Peace Treaty. The General Election is near at hand. The• political situation in the Union is compli- catedly the existence of four parties—theSouth African Party, composed of Progressive Boers ; the Unionists, who represent most of the British• settlers ; the Labour Party, mainly recruited on the Amid; and the reactionary Boer Nationalists. None of these has a majority in the House. General Botha was main- tained in office by the steady support of the British Unionists against the Nationalists. But no coalition of the moderate forces, still less a union of the two parties supporting the Govern- Anent, has seemed possible. It remains to be• seen whether General Smuts will work to this end.
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