endent or a subordinate. There will be a conflict so
long as they do not recognize our heroes, traditions and history. In
short, we are determined to have a republic of South Africa and England
must recognize it. To oppose it is fatal."

"Will you fight for it?" I asked.

"I hardly think that it will come to force," said the General. "It must
prevail by reason and education. It may not come in one year but it will
come before many years."

Hertzog's feeling is not shared, as he intimated, by the majority of
South Africans and this includes many Dutchmen. An illuminating analysis
of the Nationalist point of view was made for me by Sir Thomas Smartt,
the leader of the Unionist Party and a virile force in South African
politics. He brought the situation strikingly home to America when he
said:

"The whole Nationalist movement is founded on race. Like the Old Guard,
the Boer may die but it is hard for him to surrender. His heart still
rankles with the outcome of the Boer War. Would the American South have
responded to an appeal to arms in the common cause made by the North in
1876? Probably not. Before your Civil War the South only had individual
states. The Boers, on the other hand, had republics with completely
organized and independent governments. This is why it will take a long
time before complete assimilation is accomplished. A second Boer War is
unthinkable."

We can now return to Smuts and find out just how he achieved the miracle
by which he not only retained the Premiership but spiked the guns of the
opposition.

When I left Capetown he was in a corner. The Nationalist majority not
only made his position precarious but menaced the integrity of Union,
and through Union, the whole Empire. For five months,--the whole session
of Parliament,--he held his ground. Every night when he went to bed at
_Groote Schuur_ he did not know what disaster the morrow would bring
forth. It was a constant juggle with conflicting interests, ambitions
and prejudices. He was like a lion with a pack snapping on all sides.

Now you can see why he sat in that front seat in the House morning, noon
and night. He placated the Labourites, harmonized the Unionists, and
flung down the gauntlet openly to the Nationalists. Throughout that
historic session, and although much legislation was accomplished, he did
not permit the consummation of a single decisive division. It was a
triumph of parliamentary leadership.

When the session closed