Political Crisis Looms in South Africa As Nazis Press Colonies Claim

The Dominion of South Africa is rapidly approaching a political crisis which is bound to have serious and far-reaching consequences for the 100,000 Jews residing there, according to informed opinion in London circles closely connected with South African interests.

The crisis is bound up with the clash between the large South African group which believes that the Dominion can reach an agreement with Germany that would protect its interests and guarantee its security and those supporters of General Jan Smuts, the Deputy Prime Minister, who maintain that South African security and independence are inextricably bound up with the British Empire and that South Africa must seek closer ties with Britain if it is to survive as an independent entity.

Reports received here from South Africa indicate that General Herzog, the Prime Minister and titular head of the United (Government) Party now leans to the pro-German view and the Nationalists, the Afrikaander movement headed by Dr. D.F. Malan, is urging on him a coalition of the Afrikaander, pro-German forces. Should such a merger eventuate, the line-up would be an all-Boer majority party committed to a course of friendship and close cooperation with the Third Reich, opposed by a smaller faction, under the leadership of General Smuts, composed of the British and moderate elements among the Boers. The present coalition of General Herzog’s forces with General Smut’s South African Party would be dissolved and General Smuts would re-create his party as the new opposition. In this, he would have the support of J.H. Hofmeyr, former Minister of Education, who resigned some months ago in disagreement with the Herzog policies.

There is little doubt that the projected Herzog-Malan coalition would be heavily tinged with anti-Semitism which is now one of the key planks in the Malan platform. The Malanites have been using the anti-Jewish war-cry as a slogan to rally the Boers around an Afrikaander nationalist platform. This campaign has been making considerable headway in recent months with one of its by-products being the Benoni synagogue bombing. Should the Malanites, who are now urging complete prohibition of Jewish immigration into the Union, become, through the rumored coalition, part of the Government, then their anti-Semitic campaign would be tremendously accelerated, as would their anti-British drive and their demands for further repression of the natives.

The implications of this rapidly coalescing political situation in the Union has had its repercussions in the City of London, which has extensive South African financial interests. Recent weeks have seen an unloading on the London Exchange of the famed Khaffirs, the South African mining stocks, which have slumped. Financial circles report also that there has been extensive selling of Khaffirs by Jewish interests which are apprehensive regarding the future owing to the political situation and wish to withdraw their capital from South Africa.

The developing tendencies in South Africa today are attributed here to the altered international situation following the Munich Pact. Increasingly large numbers of Afrikaanders, never too friendly to Britain, are becoming increasingly skeptical of Britain’s ability to stand up to the totalitarian states and there is a growing insistence on making terms with Germany before it is too late. General Smuts, almost single-handed among the Boers, has been campaigning against this attitude for months, emphasizing that South Africa’s only hope for security lies within the British Empire and behind the bastion of the British fleet.

The position of the Jews in South Africa is being viewed here with increasing concern as a result of the impetus being given the nationalist movement and the growth of pro-German sentiment. The chief hope for a course of moderation in the Union lies in the possibility of General Herzog acquiring the conviction that only through maintenance of close ties with Britain can South Africa keep South-West Africa from going back to German ownership and only within the British Empire is the security of the country assured.