The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-11-13
NO NEGRO RULE THERE.


In his speech In the House of Com
mons on the second realing-unani-
mously carried---of the bill sane
tioning the union Of the fourth British
colonies OF South Africa on the basis
Of the compromise constitution franz
cd by the colonies themselves. Colo
mel seeley. Under Secretary for the
Colonies. said:
"rhe bill proposes to set up one Par
lament for the whole Of South Africa.
II proposes to amaigamate South Afri-
CO In q union closer than that Of Aus
traliA: closer even than the union Of
Canada The fact Of there being a
vast native population. who have to
Be governed. to the greatest extent.
BY the white races. makes It essential
that one single form OF government.
with strength. power and sympathies.
should pursue o common policy with
regard to all the native races.
tho Parliament is to be composed
Of the King. the Senate and the House
Of Assembly. The Senate has 10 rep
ressatatives. Of whom eight are nom-
mated by the governor-general In
Council and eight are elected from
each province. OF the eight nominat-
ID Senators. four are to be chosen for
specaai knowledge OF native affairs
and Of the wishes Of the colored races.
The Senate can amend all bills and
riGhts except money bills Money bills
II can reject but not amend. The two
houses cit and vote together--in the
case Of money bills at once: In the
cssa Of other bills only after q meas
ure has been passed by the Assembly
. second time. AZ the Assembly num-
bsrs i31 members and the Senate only
-. tac power OF the former is great
sr than In England. The 121 men,
bers are selected. broadly speaking.
on the basis Of the European male
adult population In each province. Ma
tai and the Orange Free State. as
small states. have rather more MEM
hers than they are entitled to-; the
Transvall and Cape Coloney less. The
III members are distributed as fol-
lows: Cape of Good Hope. IL men,
btrs; Transvall. 3s; Natal and Orange
Free state. each II. The qualifica-
tion OF a sitting member is that he
shall be OF European descent. shall
have qualified as voter In his pro-
vince and be British subject of five
years residence. There Is to be 'one
vote. one value with the same num-
ber Of voters In each constituency.
tho~Jh there may be, a is per cent
variation In accordance with density
or sparsity of population. nature of
0istrict. etc. There Is to be an au-
Z tomato redistribution OF seats.
There are to be four provincial
Councils with franchise, the same
as for the Assembly. No man who
now has vote well lose 1t under the
bill and no one now without 1t will
gain IL. Qn Cape Colony the natives
have to a restricted extent the right
TO vote and will retain It; In the other
three colonies they have no vote and
will not get IT.
''In official documents In the courts
and In Parliament the English and
Dutch languages are to have equal
rights. The new South Africa gov
ernment assumes the debts Of the for
mer colonies and takes care Of the
railway management and the civil SER
vice. A judiciary Is set up for the
whole OF South Africa. including q
Supreme Court. The care and treat
ment OF natives are given over to the
central power. as also all matters af-
fecting Asiatics. native reserves. loca-
tions, trusts, etc.. likewise fall to the
care OF the Union Parliament.( The
protectorates remain at present under
the care OF the London government.
but their gradual transfer is con-
templated.)
Criticism Is directed to the words
of European descent Gin the consti-
tutional definition of the right to be-
come a voter)--a disability imposed
upon election to the Union Parlia-
ment. We regret that these words are
In the bill. but We know they form
an essential compromise. When this
House granted self-government to the
Transvall and Orange river colony 1t
granted franchise which excluded
natives from the vote and from their
Parliaments. The Cape for 55 years
has had a restricted franchise. which
some OF the natives enJoy--we have