By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
ING GEORGE V's silver jubl-
lee, now at its height In
England, bas formed an In-
nocent, if world-wide, Insti-
tution for propagandizing the unity
and extent of the British Empire, No
one, certainly, questions (ts extent
But there are those among the politl-
cal economists of the day who at least
suggest that the far-flung realm shows
signs of breaking apart, and when the
real test comes, if it ever does, they
may be right.
“Recent developments In South Af-
rica have again made people ask
whether the British Empire is break-
ing up,” writes Fred Olarke, Eoglish
educator and former representative of
the Union of South Africa at Geneva,
in Current History Magazine. “With-
out attempting to answer that question,
one can have no doubt as to the im-
yortance of the status of the Union
act, which received royal assent on
June 22, 1934. This new law has a
bearing on the whole future of Brit-
ish imperial unity.”
The status act contains the first defl-
nite official reference of the crown to
the union as “a sovereign independent
state.” Its accompanying seal act gives
the exclusive right of use of the Great
Seal and Little Seal, heretofore held
by the king, to the South African min-
isters,
For more than a quarter of a cen-
tury South Africa, politically, has been
torn bitterly between two political fac
tions as directly opposed as our New
Dealers and rugged individualists.
They were led by General Smuts, right-
hand man of General Botha in the
Union government which arose a few
years after the South African war,
and General Hertzog, a minister In
the Botha cabinet who was removed
in 1912, two years after the cabinet
was formed.
General Smuts and his faction open-
ly considered the Union a definite
part of the Empire, with British civl-
lization and culture dominant. Hert-
pog sympathizers held out against the
complete social, cultural and political
domination of the Boer population by
the British, and have always striven to
make the Union a separate and inde.
pendent nation.
The present status of the Union has
been effected as a sort of political
compromise between the two generals
and thelr respective parties. The
Union is undeniably independent now,
with merely “alleglance to the crown”
the string politically tying it to Great
Britain. And the two parties have
fused into one.
They Get Together,
It is interesting to note that the
coalition of the parties came about
because their differences became so
bitter after England went off the gold
standard in 1031 that party leaders
decided that unity and compromise
would be the only means of averting
hopeless internal political strife. Im-
agine Mr. Roosevelt and, say, Mr. Hoo
ver, getting together before a political
eampaign and straightening out their
differences!
which was In power In 1031, preferred
to keep South Africa on the gold stand-
ard, believing that England had
stepped off only temporarily, and that
maintaining the standard would help
to stabilize a leading industry of South
Africa, gold mining. Other interests
suffered badly, and General Smuts’
Bouth African party accused the in
cumbents of pampering the political
interests always prone to take the op-
posite line from the empire, jeopardiz-
ing the Interests of the Union in gen.
eral thereby.
It was conceded that if General
Bmuts could force an election at that
time, he would have more than an
even chance of winning, but that he
eould not do so without stirring up
General Smuts,
the smoldering embers of raclal con
filet between Boers (or, rather, the
present-day Afrikaanders) and Britons,
an animosity that had been admirably
subdued In the preceding decades by
wise government,
To youth of South Africa really goes
of both parties know the sentimental
and romantic racial dissentions mere
#8 historical traditions, not as real
loyalties and convictions It was
whose insistence that these dif-
ferences be wiped out once and for
all impressed the nation with the ne
cessity for taking up the real business
hand—that of administering good
government. As a result of the eoal
the status act, satisfactory In
main to both parties, was effected.
Boers In Opposition,
Boer In South Africa hag
the out-and-out political domi.
of the Unlon by London, as pro
by the Briton, for fear of los
his identity. South Afvice lo &
ndhoek o i
FRICA i
; Ngouses WEST
region of two separate and powerful
cultures, and {its people speak twe
languages. There is, of course, the
English with which we are more or
less familiar. And there Is the Dutch
offspring, Afrikaans,
The New Deal for South Africa paci-
files both factiens by fostering both
cultures. Education is administered in
both, Newspapers and magazines are
published in both languages.
That the status act, with its admis
sion of South Africa's virtually abso
lute independence, applies as well to
all of the British Dominlons, is im-
plied in the fact that it includes in its
preamble the Balfour declaration ob-
tained by General Hertzog when he
headed the nationalist government of
1924, This calls the Dominions “au
tonomous communities within the
Jritish Empire, equal in status, in no
way subordinate one to another In
any respect of thelr domestic or exter
nal affairs, though united by a com-
mon allegiance to the crown, and free
ly associated as members of the Brit
ish Commonwealth of Natlons™
Further removing British political
dominance from the Dominions was
the Statute of Westminster, which
was passed by the British parliament
in 1881. It closely allied the consti.
tutional development of the other Do-
minions of the empire with that of
the Union of South Africa. The Bal.
four declaration and the Statute of
Westminster are masterpieces of
phraseology which earried soothing
balm to both South African factions
The status act Is the application of
them to the South African constitution.
Two important concessions are made
to the Dominions in the Statute of
Westminster. It gives the Dominlon
government power to amend, repeal
or modify any British act which bas
been Incorporated In the law of the
Dominion, It further states that no
British law may be applied to any Do-
minlon unless that Dominion has re
quested the application and consented
to It
Really Independent.
The status act itself declares that
no British legislation shall be consid
ered In effect In the Union of South
Africa until it Is re-enacted by the
South African parliament. The “chief
executive” Is defined as the king, who
shall act upon the advice of his South
frican ministers
In South Africa the king's represent.
ative is the governor-general. Neither
he nor the king have any powers of
veto or reservation of a bill, The gov-
ernor-general may, however, simply re
turn a bill with his opinion for further
consideration If he thinks it wise,
The king does not retain the power
to name the prime minister and to dis
solve parliament,
The case of war ‘ould be the real
test. For, with the clearly worded
status act, the Union of South Africa
can now decide for self whether or
not to remain neutral if the empire
enters a war. Says Clarke:
“It might even secede altogether,
though not apparently, by legal proe-
ess. Some commentators In England
as well as In South Africa feel dis
turbed by these possibilities. But
‘equal status’ necessirily implies them,
and legal barriers w uld be flimsy de-
fenses against the strong political pres
sures when the time of crisis comes”
It will be remembered that when
England entered the World war there
was widespread dissension in South
Africa, and even se ious uprisings in
some cases, Clarke goes on:
“Neutrality and ccession are po-
litical issues, to be letermined in the
light of all the fact when the ques
tion arises. They are not to be des
termined In advance, as some of the
die-hard lawyers seem od to demand, by
any constitutional legislation, espe
clally legislation wo dor such docu
ments as the Balfou declaration and
the Statute of Westminster,”
The Ties T .:t Bind,
The abolition of the prerogative pow.
er of the king arous d the anguish of
the pro-British faction in South Afriea,
This faction claimed that in the time
crisis the king wus the executive
the entire Br tish Empire, and
could act as he sw fit 0 case
in order tv keop the realm
apart, General Smuts
convince his followers
no such prerogative,
ha boon exercised,
question was not one of
: polities.
what the economists who
act as evidence that the
W dlalnrog oting fall to
2
gis
;
:
g
3
:
fis pial
[ihe
show is that political power or legal
power are not the real bands which
hold the Empire together, Experience
has taught us that in time of war
nations do not act on the literal in-
terpretation of the law. The ties that
bind are more substantial. In the case
of the British Imperial Dominions they
are the advantages of free trade with
in the Empire and the protection of
the British fleet. The Union of South
Africa would be an easy mark indeed
for an invading force were it not for
the protection of the greatest fleet in
the world. It Is extremely doubtful
that the Union would ever want to for-
sake such a protection.
With its constitutional status now
more clearly defined than ever béfore,
the Union of South Africa is ready it
self to begin expanding. It would like
to angex the adjacent protectorates of
Bechuanaland, Swaziland and Basuto-
land, which are now governed under
the Dominions office In London, When
the Union was formed In 1000, the con-
stitution provided for the eventual in-
Their population, however, is 00 per
cent black, and they were left out of
the original Unlon and kept under di
rect London protection because of the
treatment they had received at the
hands of the Boers who made up a
large share of the Unlon population.
When, last year, Prime Minister
Hertzog announced to Great Britain
that the Union of South Africa was
ready to act immediately to include
the protectorates, he act drew an In.
stant appeal from Chief Tsheked!
General Hertzog.
Khama of Bechuanaland. British ad-
ministration to the protectorates has
not been all that It might be, but na-
tives and native gympathizers believe
that it is better than the dfscrimi-
nation which might harm them at the
hands of the Boers.
Native Chiefs Balk
Unionists claim that there are no
selfish reasons for annexation, for the
Union has plenty of land and plenty of
economic difficulty without taking on
that of the native areas. Basutoland
is tremendously overcrowded and con
ditions among the blacks are deplor.
able. The Unlon would move the sur
plus population over to the vast ex-
panses of Bechuanaland, where the
population is searce, and would give
the blacks land and frrigate It
The natives and thelr chief are
afraid of this
Tatit Company, Ltd, owns about 1,825,
that the blacks might be exploited in
dustrially here, that the grazing land
home land for the surplus Unlon blacks
of the Union,
tive policy of the Union. The native
manent economic inferiority.
his fellows through the Union come
pelled by the native service
i
ESS
mg
J
Stirs Memories,
What long-silent echoes the Frank
lin D., Roosevelt must have stirred
to life among the blue hills erowding
the Missourl river as its deep-throat-
ed blasts heralded its arrival at
Kansas Oity recently,
Gone are the scores of vessels what
contributed to the making of this
city on the Missouri's elbow, Their
wooden carcasses slowly are petrify-
ing below the turbid tide of the
stream or they slowly are rotting at
wharfs far from the scenes of thelr
original activity, They served thelr
day. They made possible the open
ing of a great and fertile area to the
later rallroads, then bowed to that
new form of transportation,
They left only memories tinged
with romance, Still living in the hills
along the Missourl are persons who,
in the prosperous river days, could
fdentify by the tone of its whistle,
long before it could be seen, any of
the regular steamboats plying past
Kansas City.
There must have been something
missing for them as they listened to
the Roosevelt, The sound of its
whistle does not duplicate that of
the old steamboat. It is not a steam.
boat and no effort has been made to
play to the traditions of the steam-
boat. It represents a new era in
river transportation from its whistle
to its
It has no bulging and picturesque
sidewheels,
er. It does not have steam
nor sweating Its
screws, propellers In miniature
those which drive ocean
driven by
They are supplied from
not coal bunkers. Yet the
develops many times the
the primitive river boats,
tractable and requires even
channel depth than most of t}
Yet it is a river boat, inaug
& new river transportation,
volee, recalling the more
voices of the must
sponse In the hills themselves
well as among those
re ipseilers,
stokers,
of
Diesel motors
oil tanks,
Roosevelt
powerful
nl
is more
less
sem did,
rating
and its
romantic
past,
as
whose lives
gation Kansas City Times,
Den't Wait Toe Lon
E
He who laughs last
~gots Inughed at.
100
Columbus University Press has esti.
mated, there would be 88 Christians,
19 Confucianists and Taolsts, 12
Hindus, 11 Mohammedans, 10 Ani.
mists, 8 Buddhists, 1 Shintoist, and
1 few.
RELIGIOUS RATIOS
If the population of the world, ap
proximately 2,000,000,000 people, were
reduced proportionately, according to
religious faith, to 100 persons, the
RR CO pe oe AA RN AR le
when you want...
good muffins
No need to experiment
when you bake muffing—
benefit by the experience of
cooking experts who have
learned that sour milk with
Baking Soda is the leaven-
ing for best results. Tested
recipes for a variety of muf-
fins are included in our
cook book—send the cou-
pon for a free copy. When
buying Baking Soda, ask for
Arm & Hammer or Cow
Brand, they are identical in
quality and cost—one orthe
Hale nnd
biainable every-
other is
where for just
MAIL THE
few cents.
a
COUPO
rs BH Sa
er" DD-21 (AR
S07 PLEASE SEND ME FREE BOOK TT
DESCRIBING USES OF BAKING SODA
ALSO A SIT OF COLORED BIRD CARDS }
CREASE FRI Sebid AE DORE % .
[35
.
= J
GOSH, YOU SURE
KMROCKED THAT DOG
HM JIMINY
phd crickeTs!
[ano | REckon You ALL
BELONG TO THE DIZZY
DEAN WINNERS fon
WELL, GRAPE~NUTS WILL GIVE IT
TO YOU. I'VE PUT GRAPE-NUTS ON
MY ALLSTAR YEAM AS AN ENERGY ~
AND IT SURE