The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-08
FOR SOUTH AFRICA
THIRTY-TWo MEN HOLD eOUN-
 TRY's FATE.
They Form the South African National COnventiOn--TwO Dele
 gates Are Present
 From Rh0desia.
BY J. l.. EGAN.

ban. Upon thirty of the leaders of pub
 lie opinion in the four self-governing
 States of South Africa falls the respon-
 sibility of attempting to solve a prob , lem which has twice proved tnsoiubie. To them has been given the task of trying to devise a central government
 for the whole of South Afrtca-a gov ernment which In time. will rule all British South Africa from the Cape to the Zambesi.
 Strictly speaking. thirty-two men form the South African National Con- vention for two delegates from
 Rhodesia will have seats at the table. But their position will be somewhat analogous to that of the New Zealand | representatives at the National Austra- lasian Convention of 1891. They will
 hold, as it were, a watching brief. Their | duty will be to see that door is left open through which Rhodesia may | eventually enter the Union.
 It Is genuinely South African gathering in the best and widest mean ing Of the word-not in the narrow
 sense in which the members of one par | tieular political school of thought claim
 to be Africanders. Twenty of the thir- | ty are South African born. Moreover | they are fitting representatives of a young nation, for only three are over | 50 years of age. Half of the thirty be- long to or are in sympathy with the Bond, or South African Party. More 1 than a third are lawyers.
 | As befits the oldest and the largest and the most populous State in South
 Africa, the Cape of Good Hope sends | the strongest contingent to the Nation | al Convention. In Sir Hendy de Vil- | Hers the Cape supplies the president | of the National Convention. and. re-
 membering the part played by MacDon-
 ald in the Quebec conference and by | Barton in Australian federation. 1t is plain that he may wield very great in- l fiuence over the debates. It Is over forty years since Sir Henry de Villiers | first entered the Cape Parliament. | Since then he has held many high ofi- | ces, especially in connection with legal | work and everyone agrees that he IS
 the right man to preside. His weight will be on the side of uniflcation. He
 was South Africa's representative at | the recent Quebec tercentenary and he | has returned convinced that if closer | union is to be a success 1t must be car ried out upon a plan even more central
 ized than the Canadian system.
 The Present Premier.
 Perhaps the most picturesque figure 1 on the Cape side is that of John x. Mer- | riman, the present Premier of the Col ony. He entered the Cape Parliament
 only two years after Sir Henry do Vil- l Hers, whom he opposed on the ques- l tion of the granting of responsible government. At one time or another
 Mir. Merriman has opposed everyone
 and everything he now supports. He reached, the -CapesP Parliament-in time to | help Melteno defeat Lord Carnarvon's
 federation scheme. He has been every thing by turns--land surveyor, mine 1 manager, farmer. jam manufacturer. But his real occupation Is politics. II | federation goes through, MT. Merri- man as the Premier of the oldest Col
 ony, will. according to Australian pre-
 cedent. be invited to form the first Fed
 eral Cabinet.
 l But there are younger men coming 10 the front in Cape politics. Most prom | inently among them are MT. Sauer and Mir Malan, both young, both lawyers
 both able, both rather bitter and anti
 British Mir. Sauer was Colonial Secre- | tary in the Rhodes Ministry of 1S90- l and helped to wreck 1t. In the recent l session of the Cape Parliament his cold and almost brutal sarcasm drove the | Jamesonites into frenzies of rage. MT. | Malan is reaping the reward of years l of patient work. He edited Ons Lana | for years at a salary which the report CT of a big South African paper would have refused and was sentenced to years Imprisonment for libelling cen | eral French Marriman, Sauer and Ma 1 Ian have as followers Messrs. Maas- dorp and Van Heerden and pr. Beck all Bondsmen Mir. Van Heerden is prominent Eastern Province farmer, and is regarded as a moderate man-for the Bond.
 pr. Jameson a Member.
 The other members of the delegation represent the Opposition. pr. Jameson everyone knows. He inelines to teder-
 ation as a step to unification and will act as a brake upon Sir Henry de Nll-
 Hers. Dr. Smartt has been leader Of the Cape Opposition during the absence
 of "Dr. Jim" He is a fluent speaker and a good administrator. MT. Walton,
 who was the Treasurer in the last Capt Ministry, is strong on finance. MT.
 IapRer is a we'll known business man
 He is a Free Trader Gas Free Trade Ia understood in the Colonies) with taste for finance and statistics. Colonel Stanfordis a well known expert on na-
 tive matters
 vaal delegation. Commercial interests arc not represented at all. This Is un- doubtedly a grave error. and gives decided advantage to the experts or the Cape. Mir. Shuts is the strongest man on the Transvaal's list. He IS con- vinced unifcationst. and will back up Sir Henry de Viliers in his most draz-
 
 General Botha's interests lie wholly in tbe TransvalI. and he will fight for
 the farmers of the interior. but he IS likely to be much influenced by MT. Smufs MT. Hull was once a member of the Reform Committee and mining group lawyer. Now he is Treasurer in inc Botha Ministry. Finance and rail- ways are his strong points. MT SchalF
 Rurcer. who has rather dropped out o'
 tbe nublIc view in the last few years, was chairman of the famous Industrial Commission in the TranSvaai whose re- nort induced Kruger to denounce Schalk Burger a a traitor to his coun- try After the fight Schalk Burger was acting President of the Republic. Scbalk Burger and De Ia Key have been included to propltiate the backveldt Boers. Probably both are little tn- cIined to fall into the protection ideas preached by A. D. Wolmarans. But they will not revolt against General Botha.
 Educated in England.
 Probably Sir George Farrar comes next to AIr. Shuts in ability and infiu- ence. He Is m old Bedford Grammar School hoy who gave up trade at the coast when the rush to the Rand be-
 gan. and Is now a multi millionaire and the head of the great F R. P. M
 group He works very hard at politics, and has splendid grasp or all the chief questions before the Opposition in the Transvaal Parliament Sir PorcY
 FitsPatrick Is his right-hand man In politics. Sir Percy. poet. author, editor
 transport rider miner. guide 10 the Randolph Churchill Expedition Into Mashonaland, etc, is an attractive ng- ure in South African life. He is nu- ent and rather emotional speaker but scores well in a cross-table discussion'