—LONDON

HE defeat of Field Mar-

shall Jan Christian Smuts’
United Party by Dr. Daniel
F. Malan’s Nationalists in the
recent South African elec-
tions has had a profound effect in
British imperialist circles.

The immediate effect was to
throw the London stock exchange
into a near panic. South African
gold mining and industrial shares
slumped heavily and total losses
in market values at the end of
the day stood at $80,000,000.

Although informed opinion in
South Africa and outside had ex-
pected a decline in the number of
seats held by the United Party, no
one had been prepared for the
shock of defeat.

Smuts himself had realized that
he needed something more than
personal prestige to hold the coun-

try and, with a view to influen-’

cing the elections more in his fa-
vor, he had for some time been
engaged in making suitable ar-
rangements. It was widely be-
lieved, for instance, that the visit
of the British royal family to
South Africa last year was intend-
ed to serve as a political bolster
for Smuts and for the mainten-
ance of the Commonwealth con-
nection which the Malanazis (as
Dr. Malan’s Nationalists are call-
ed) were threatening.

The narrowness of the Nation-
alist victory is a crumb of com-
fort to the British imperialists
who believe that Dr. Malan, be-
cause of his flimsy majority, will
resist the pressure of the wild
men calling for steps .to set up an
independent republic. In any case,
South African law constitutional
reform measures require the sup-
port of a each vgs — to
be carried.

Nonetheless, there is anxiety in
London lest the Nationalist gov-
‘ernment should proceed to take
action against British invest-
ments in South African industries
sand gold mines and lest it should
decide to take South Africa out
of the sterling area.

>

A the facts point to the cor
rectness of the view of the_
Johannesburg Star that it must
be assumed that the electorate
has again been stampeded on the
color issue “since this was the
spearhead of the attack. The Na-
tionalist election campaign was
marked by the most violent in-
citement to race hatred.”

It is significant that the man
who defeated Smuts in his own
constituency, Wentzel du: Plessis,
is an ex-member of Smuts’ ad-
ministration who chose to resign
during the war rather than sever
his connection with the pro-Nazi
Bruderbund.

The minister for Native affairs,
Major Van der Byl, also met with
defeat. Although elsewhere he
would be recognized without diffi-
culty as a reactionary, he was in
Nationalist eyes too liberal, and
that is an indication of the
strength cf the feeling of the ma-
jority of the white population on
the color question.

Smuts, his deputy prime minis-
ter, Jan Hofmeyr, and Van der
Byl, are not regarded as strong
enough in their desire to hold
down the 9,000,000 non-Europeans,
even though their policy has been
condemned as unjust and undem-
ocratic by progressive people both
inside and outside South Africa,
and above all, by the United Na-
tions.

aration) in every
economic and
eans Dr. Malan

The Reich

moves south

government is now

“ partheid” (sep-
urse of imposing “2 etuate the

tion of non-Europ-

sphere of life to perP

litical subordina
sRionat denounced in 1923.

B y
DESMOND
BUCKLE

The hysterical campaign of the
Malanazis to clear out from Pub-
lic life ali those whom they de-
nounced as Kafferboeties (Afri-
kans’ term of contempt, meaning
literally “Kaffir brother’) ;
certainly had effect.

With his masterly use of sanc-
timonious verbiage, Smuts, the
arch peddler of pinchbeck philo-
sophy, has been sold big to the
world by British imperialism as a
supreme. humanist, Yet his atti-
tude on the race question is no
less vicious and reactionary than
that of Dr. Malan. Indeed, he
thoroughly shares their views and
he made that clear in one of his
rare moments of candor when ad-
dressing the Union House of As-
sembly on March 13, 1945. He
said:

“There are certain things about
which all South Africans are ag-
reed, all parties and all sections,
except those who are quite mad.
The first is that it is a fixed policy
to maintain white supremacy in
South Africa.”

As far as the African, colored
and Indian communities are con-
cerned, had the result of the elec-
tions gone the other way they
would expect an extension of
their rights. Now, with open fas-
cism in power, they stand in
great danger of losing even the
meager rights they have been
able up to the present to retain.

The question arises whether in
pursuit of his policy (rigid segre-
gation of non-Europeans in social,
residential, industrial and Ppoliti-
cal spheres), Dr, Malan will heed

has

the warning of the Fagan Com-
nussion, which, in its recently
published report, pointed to the
inadequacy of the reserves to con-
tain the African population.

One result of the elevation of
the Malanazis to power is ex-

4

By TED TINSLEY
J[NEZ ROBB, an International

News Service correspondent
who shovels it up for Hearst’s
New York Journal-American, re=
cently reported a simple saga of
farm folk that will pull at your
heart strings. Those whose hearts
are not equipped with strings will
find her story more or less touch-
ing. ge

Said: Inez, “Some quiet agricul-
tural district within a 50-mile ra-
dius of Toronto is going to have
new neighbors shortly, The new
neighbors will be plain in appear-
ance, simple in manner, homely
in dress, and unassuming in ev-
ery way.”

One of these new farmers is a
weman whose “plain face crinkled
from ear to ear” as she was in-
terviewed. She wore shabby
tweeds, comfortable old eae,
and serviceable oxfords.

Guess who! Is it a DP come to
the new world to start life again?

No. It’s the Grand Duchess Ol-
ga, aged 66 (as you can tell by
counting the plain pearls on her
neck), sister of the late Czar of
Russia. Olga, who operates with-

pected to be a renewal of agita-
tion for the incorporation of the
High Commission territories of
Bechuanaland, Swaziland and
Basutoland, now under direct
British control, into the Union of
South Africa, And there is also

out a last name, is coming to
Canada with her family.

Now I grant you, from the
Picture, that Olga is indeed slop-
py. Royalty runs to two types.
The fashion-plate-Duke-of-Wind-
sor type royalty, which tries hard
to look like Noel Coward trying
to look like them. They sport
Fred Allen eyes, are always
sleepy, and wear their pants a
little too high, ‘although I’ve al-
ways suspected that if anyone
looked in the pants cuffs he would
find a lot of fingernail clippings.

The other type royalty is the

sloppy type. This type dresses on |

the theory that divine blood runs
so strong, when it runs at all,
that no concessions to society are
necessary. Olga is among. these
latter.

e ,
JNEZ ROBB gave Olga the big

simple woman-of-the-soil build-
up. One can just imagine hér
charging through the Canadian
customs, roaring, “Give me my
hoe and plough! Harness me up!
I must till the soil! Don’t fence
me in! Get along little doggies!”

This is not quite the case.

Olga has left Denmark to es-
cape what she calls “creeping

not finished.

the question of whether the new —
government will go beyond the
hitherto successful policy of defl-
ance of United Nations’ decisions
in regard to South West Africa
and the Indian Bill, and risk a
break with the United Nations, as
well as with India and Pakistan.

‘THE color question undoubtedly

won over to the Nationalist
side some of the English-speaking
voters who traditionally vote for
the United Party. But the econ-
comic chaos into which the coun-
try has been plunged, and the
vexed quéstion of the housing
shortage, did no good to Smuts’
cause.

The discovery of new gold
fields and postwar industrial de-
velopment have brought great
profits to speculators’ and a few
manufacturers. But the mass of
the people of all races have had
to-put up with an ever-rising cost
of living.

On the subject of immigration,
the Nationalists’ anti - British
sentiments have been given full
rein. Smuts wanted unrestricted
immigration
swell the white population. The
Nationalists fiercely opposed this
Policy and Dr, Malan suggested
that settlers from Britain spould
first undergo a period of proba-
tion. before being granted full
rights of citizenship, as their ideas
of democracy might prove unsuit-
able for South African conditions.

_The Nationalists, however, wel-
come all the fascist dregs of Ger-

many—Polish. supporters of Gen-

eral Anders, Nazi prisoners of
war, Yugoslav royalists and Ital-

ian fascists. It is expected that the —

254 Germans who were due for de-
portation for their activities dur-
ing the war will now be allowed
to remain, and that Sydney Holm,
the radio traitor and Nazi agent,
and the ex-boxer Robey Len-
brandt—both serving life senten-
ces for their wartime activities—
will be quickly released.

from Britain to

The group of fascists drawn ‘

from such organizations as the
Ossewabrandwag ( “Oxwagon
Sentinels”), the Greyshirts, Pir-
ow’s New Order Party and the
Bruderbund, who on May 8, 1945,
on the surrender of Nazi Ger-
many, sang “Deutschland uber
alles” and heiled Hitler in front
of the city hall of Johannesburg,
have realized their fond dreams.
They have established their
“Reich” on the soil of Africa.

P’s de luxe

communism.”
Kulikovsky, and a son and daugh-
ter-in-law, want a farm that's
“not too large,” and is located far
from socialism.

They expect to work this farm
“with some outside help”. Olga
will probably confine herself to
shouting words of encourage-
ment to the “outside help. "

Olga, the peasant, has other as-
sets beside her simple ways. Inez
Robb refers to these assets as
“ample cash money.” Olga has
family funds which have been ly-

_ ing in a New York bank for some
time, To these funds, we must add ..
_ what Inez Robb. calls a “nice cash

balance” in a@ Canadian bank.
This is for an emergency, such as
more socialism. But wait! We are
Olga, the peasant,
also has English investments.

: These investments pay an annual

income which a close friend calls
“very comfortable.”

- How I wish I could be a simple

peasant with family funds in a
New York bank, a nice cash bal-
ance in Canada, and a comfort-

able income from English invest- |
ments, If you have to be a peas-.

ant, that’s the way to do it, I
always did say.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY big 1948—PAGE 4

Now she, Colonel

\