1942: South Africa, Union Of

The Union of South Africa, one of the principal member-states in the British Commonwealth of Nations, was called upon during 1942 to play an increasingly important part in the war against the Axis Powers. The war in the Middle East has thrown into sharp relief the importance of the Cape sea route in the Allied lines of communication. South African ports have become the indispensable ports of call en route to all the theaters of war in the Near East and Middle East. South Africa has indeed played a double role in the defense of this sea route. She has no navy of her own, but under the Smuts-Churchill agreement of 1924 the Union is responsible for the land defense of Simonstown, the British naval station near Cape Town. In addition the Union has developed coastal defenses manned by Coast Garrison units, and has established mine sweeping, patrolling, and examination services in coastal waters. The fleets employed in this work are composed largely of whalers, trawlers, etc., converted to wartime use. The strongest arm, however, of the Seaward Defense Force is the air reconnaissance squadrons which patrol thousands of miles of the African coast line.

South African troops which have been on active service since June 10, 1940, when Italy declared war, continued during 1942 campaigning in East Africa and in North Africa. The Union thus continued to maintain large military units at the distant and extreme northern end of the African continent. These troops have had a material share in the North African fighting of the past 18 months. South African troops also participated in the British occupation of Madagascar in 1942.

Production of War Equipment.

This has been the greatest and most difficult task for the Union, but 1942 witnessed further notable success in production of war materials. When war broke out South Africa was almost totally unprepared. There was little military equipment and what there was was largely obsolete. Some factors favored the rapid development of the present large-scale war industries. The Union is rich in base metals and mineral resources. Unlimited coal has made possible production of cheap electric power. A steel industry which at the outbreak of war supplied one-third of the domestic market has been rapidly expanded. The explosives industry and the heavy engineering industries associated with gold-mining and South Africa's state-owned railroad system have been expanded and harnessed to war production. As a result, the Iron and Steel Corporation (Iscor) is producing armor plate for armored cars, general service trucks and steel helmets, and operates an ordnance factory for the treatment of gun barrels, and manufacture of special steels and tool steels. Its foundries manufacture heavy shells and replacement parts for equipment used in the Middle and Near East. The South African Mint is producing .303 ammunition on a scale beyond the Union's own requirements, and the surplus is being shipped abroad.

The year 1942 also witnessed the mass production of armored cars, the only important parts being engine and chassis. In one 18-month period more than 30,000 motor vehicles were sent to East Africa. Much of the repair work on mechanized equipment of the Middle East and Near East campaigns is being done by engineering shops in or organized by the Union. Other war activities which have reached new peaks during 1942 include the production of clothing, uniforms, blankets, boots, and shoes. Millions of pairs of military boots are being made for other Dominions. By the summer of 1942 the number of Union factories engaged wholly or part-time in war production exceeded six hundred.

Raw Materials.

Wool next to gold is the Union's most important export, and under a Wool Purchase Agreement, Great Britain is purchasing the entire wool clip for the duration of the war and one year thereafter. To Great Britain the Union is continuing to ship 'strategic' metals such as manganese, chrome, and asbestos, and important foodstuffs such as sugar, dried fruits and dairy products.

Postwar Development.

A notable feature of South Africa's wartime effort is the fact that it is planned with a view to post-war development. An Industrial Development Corporation has been set up to advise and assist new industries and to assure that they are so planned that they can be carried on after the war. F. C. Sturrock, Minister of Railways and Harbors, believes that the new armament industry may make it possible for the Union to build its own locomotives after the war. A machine tool industry has already been started and likewise a South African shipbuilding industry. On Feb. 28, General Smuts laid the foundation stone of a South African Naval Training Base at Cape Town suggesting that this was the beginning of coordination of South Africa's Sea Service into a single Naval Service which would be typically South African.

Party Politics and the War.

In the lower house of the bicameral legislature created by the Constitution of 1910 the political parties have fought some of the most bitter battles of modern constitutional history. The present government is headed by the Prime Minister, Field Marshal J. C. Smuts, soldier-statesman, Minister of Defense, Minister of External Affairs, and Commander-in-Chief of the Union Forces. He leads the most powerful of the political parties, the United Party of Afrikaans and English-speaking followers. Two minor parties each have a representative in the cabinet: the Dominion Party, led by Col. C. F. Stallard, and the Labor Party, led by W. B. Madelcy. The Opposition is represented in the Assembly by the Reunited Nationalist Opposition, headed by Dr. D. F. Malan; the National-Socialist or 'New Order' group, headed by Oswald Pirow; and the Afrikaner Party whose nominal leader was the former Prime Minister, Gen. J. B. M. Hertzog, who died November 21, 1942, but which is actually led in the Lower House by E. A. Conroy. These opposition parties have opposed and continue to oppose the Union's participation in the war, but the inter-party strife among them appears to obviate any possibility of a serious parliamentary challenge to the Government's policy.

The House of Assembly consists of 153 members, three of whom are elected by native (Bantu) constituencies and are not members of any party. The United Party in the Assembly comprises 71 members, the Dominion Party nine members, and the Labor Party (including Labor Independent) four members. The three representatives of Bantu constituencies also support the Government's war policy.

The Nationalist Party has 39 members in the House, the 'New Order' 17 members, and the Afrikaner Party nine members. The Speaker of the House of Assembly does not, as a rule, exercise his vote and, allowing for casual vacancies and absentee members, the Government has an effective working majority of about twenty.

Foreign Relations.

Speaking over an international hook-up from London on Oct. 31, Premier Smuts called for an elaboration of the Atlantic Charter in 'the economic and social sphere' to guarantee a postwar 'healthy international life.' During September he called on President Roosevelt to aid in unification of the British and American war effort. The Union of South Africa maintains a legation in Washington, D. C. The Minister is Ralph William Close. On Oct. 31, Minister Close revealed that the Union's army earlier in the year had numbered at least 163,000 men composed entirely of volunteers.

1941: South Africa, Union Of

Although located at a great distance from the battle fronts of the world conflict, South Africa continued to make a substantial contribution to the fight against the Axis in 1941, while at the same time she avoided the major dislocations of war. South African ground and air forces played a prominent role in the completion of the conquest of Italian East Africa; Union troops were first to enter Addis Ababa, former Ethiopian capital, which had served as headquarters for the Fascist forces. Then the South Africans were moved northward in May and June, to take up positions in Egypt and prepare for the second Allied thrust into Libya. Since the dominion's war-time premier, Field Marshal Jan C. Smuts, had promised not to send troops outside Africa, South Africans did not participate in the Greek campaign. There were 163,500 — all volunteers — in the army at the close of the year and 20,000 in the air force. A small seaward Defense Force patroled coastal waters and operated as far north as Aden. Natives from South Africa, organized in labor and transport units, supported the fighting forces in all their campaigns.

The conversion of South African industries to war production and the construction of new plants brought a considerable increase in the output of munitions and supplies. The Union became the chief source of bombs and shells for Allied armies in the Middle East, and exported large quantities of small arms ammunition. During 1941 a factory, planned and built within nine months, commenced production of howitzers, while anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns began to flow from other ordnance plants. Sixty-five types of military vehicles, including troop transports, ambulances, repair shops, and tank trucks, were constructed by South African shops using chassis assembled from parts made in North America. The production of armored cars reached 200 monthly. Secondary industries raised still higher the production figures on steel helmets, boots, uniforms, and other items of equipment, not only for the Union's forces, but also for other Allies in the Middle and Far East.

Agricultural production increased almost as rapidly as industrial. Sugar, wheat, fruits, and canned foods of many kinds were shipped to the battlefronts and to Great Britain. Gold mining continued to expand until it reached £10,000,000 monthly in mid-1941, thereby enabling the Union to pay for imports from abroad. Other minerals, such as copper, zinc and industrial diamonds were in great demand by the United States and Britain. The extraordinary economic activity brought a sudden flush of prosperity to the Union, sending sales of consumers' goods to high levels. The government found it necessary to impose a price control régime and to severely restrict the import of non-essential articles. As the year grew to a close, South Africans began to feel the pinch of war for the first time.

The opposition of the anti-British and anti-war elements of the Afrikaans-speaking people continued to impede and restrict the Union's war effort, although it was by no means true that all Afrikaners, who compose 60 per cent of the population, disapproved of the struggle against the Axis. Fortunately for the government, the anti-war Nationalists were unable to achieve unity of action, and instead split farther apart during 1941. At the Transvaal party congress in August, Dr. D. F. Malan, leader of the National (anti-war) Party, castigated the group headed by Mr. Oswald Pirow, who demanded immediate peace with Germany and the creation of a National Socialist 'New Order' in South Africa, modeled on Hitler's new European order. Only 20 of the 500 delegates present supported Pirow. At the same congress, Malan asked that all good Nationalists resign from the Ossewa Brandwag, the secret society claiming 300,000 members and patterned on the German Storm Troopers organization. The National Party was left, somewhat weakened, but still dominant among the opposition groups. The small Afrikaner Party, a moderate group founded by General J. B. M. Hertzog and Mr. Havenga in January, was shocked when Hertzog declared on Oct. 23 that Nazism was 'an Afrikaner national tradition and custom.' He was read out of the party. The activities of some Nationalists extended far beyond mere political and parliamentary opposition. Sabotage of factories and power lines occurred in Afrikaner areas. Vituperation directed against soldiers on leave in Johannesburg led to a week-end of serious rioting in early February, with 230 persons sent to hospitals.

As the year ended, South Africa's importance in Allied world strategy was mounting. The Japanese offensive in the Far East threatened to sever shipping lanes in the Pacific and thus increased the reliance of the United Nations on the routes leading into the Indian Ocean past the Cape of Good Hope. At the same time, the possibility that Germany would strike hard in North Africa led Allied strategists to place more reliance on the Union as a source of supplies and a base of operations.

1940: South Africa, Union Of

All other issues and developments in the Union of South Africa during 1940 were overshadowed by the course of the great political struggle between General Jan Christiaan Smuts, the Prime Minister, and the cohorts of the Nationalist opposition under Dr. D. F. Malan, working in cooperation with the followers of General J. B. M. Hertzog. In September 1939 General Hertzog had opposed South Africa's entry into the war and was overthrown on that issue. Replacing him, General Smuts had secured a majority of 18 in the House of Assembly, which he had fought with success to consolidate and increase during 1940. The Nationalists, the Hertzog group, and a sizeable minority of the Labor party preached an attractive if illogical doctrine of appeasement. To them it appeared likely that Britain would lose the war; they therefore advocated the proclamation of an independent republic, which would welcome Germany's return to Africa — even to the mandated territory of Southwest Africa. Along with this line of argument many speakers introduced a strain of anti-democratic propaganda as well. The Smuts government, however, did not resort to repression of utterances which approached incitement to treason and sedition. Instead, General Smuts emphatically proclaimed his faith that Britain would win and that a British victory was necessary for the survival of an independent South Africa.

Events proved that a majority of the European population supported this view. An army of 100,000 was raised in twelve months on a volunteer basis. Few of those who had enrolled for service in South Africa demurred when they were asked to participate in military action anywhere on the African continent — notably in Kenya. The invasion of the Netherlands weakened the antipathy of many Boers to the war policy. The discovery of a German minefield off Cape Agulhas in mid-May did nothing to increase the Nazis' popularity. General Smuts' lines in Parliament held firm in spite of all opposition efforts. On Aug. 31, General Hertzog was defeated on a motion calling for peace, for the third time since the outbreak of war, by a decisive vote of 83 to 65 in the House. Not long afterward it became evident that Hertzog's Afrikanders and Malan's Nationalists had fallen out during an attempt to draft a program for the so-called Reunited Nationalist Party formed by the two groups on Jan. 28, 1940. On Nov. 7, General Hertzog resigned as leader of the party. Five weeks later he and his former finance minister, N. C. Havenga, resigned from Parliament and announced that they were retiring to private life.

In internal affairs the reverberations of the war situation were also predominant. There was much dissatisfaction with red tape and muddling in defense matters — some of it due to the apparent incompetence of the former Nationalist defense minister, Oswald Pirow, who had maintained close ties with Germany. It was expected that conditions would be improved as a result of sweeping amendments to the War Measures Act giving the government semi-dictatorial powers to further the war effort. The only major domestic reform of the year was a revision of the electoral law which granted increased representation to urban areas. Economic conditions were varied. Production for nonwar purposes languished, while the output of gold and vital materials found a ready market. Gold production reached record heights during several months of the year. Conclusion of a wool purchase agreement with Britain in August assured local producers of good returns until after the end of the war. Exports of fruit and other agricultural products to Britain were heavy. Because British convoys to the East were diverted from the Mediterranean to the Cape route after Italy entered the war in June, there was great activity in the major harbors. Despite a factory labor shortage, higher taxes and new government loans, strict price controls and appeals for thrift were instrumental in limiting to 3.6 per cent the rise in cost of living from the outbreak of war in November 1940.

1939: South Africa, Union Of

Until the outbreak of war in September, the Union of South Africa had passed a rather uneventful year. In its first normal session, from Feb. 3 to June 16, the newly elected Parliament produced little constructive legislation, although it adopted a few minor social and agricultural measures. A striking development in the country was the increase in anti-Semitism and color prejudice, which was carefully fostered by the Nationalist party opposition under Dr. D. F. Malan. Apparently concluding that it could no longer resist this tendency, the Government enacted the Asiatics (Transvaal Land and Trading) Act segregating Indians within the places of residence and business which they now occupy. While the law is effective for only two years, during which the Union Government is to consult with the Government of India on the problem, a sharp controversy with India has been precipitated; and there is a growing movement for a common non-European front of Asiatics, colored peoples, and natives against the European rulers of South Africa.

The reverberations of European events struck the Union with especial force. With British assistance, the Government made excellent progress in putting into effect its £6,000,000 defense program. Europe's disputes became Africa's because of the German demand for colonies. By propaganda and terrorism, the Nazis had by 1939 almost completely 'coordinated' the German inhabitants of the mandated territory of South-West Africa, so that the Union was forced to pass laws providing for the registration of aliens and permitting the dispatch of South African police to the area. These steps were strongly opposed by the Afrikaans-speaking (Boer) Nationalist opposition, whose antipathy to Britain was so great that they were unwilling to become involved in Anglo-German hostilities by defending the mandated territory.

When war came, the deep cleavages between supporters and opponents of assistance to Britain immediately became crucial. The United Party cabinet of General J. B. M. Hertzog, a fusion group formed in 1933, fell apart over the issue. On Sept. 4, General Hertzog introduced in Parliament a motion favoring continuance of diplomatic relations with Germany. On the next day, Parliament, by an adverse vote of 80 to 66, rejected the proposal; and a new government was formed by General Jan C. Smuts. Military preparations were immediately accelerated, but the new Premier emphatically stated that troops would be used only for 'home defense.'

1938: South Africa, Union Of

With its economic situation reasonably secure as a result of a continued boom in gold production due to the high world price of gold, South Africa indulged in the luxury of internal political dispute throughout 1938. In an intensive campaign prior to the general election of May 18, the United party, under the leadership of Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog, appealed for a new mandate on the ground, first, that it represented the only effort to fuse the conflicting interests of the two European nationalities in a single, paramount South African unity; and second, that it stood upon its record in bringing prosperity to the country. The only powerful opposition group, the Nationalist party of Dr. F. S. Malan, charged the Government with subservience to British imperialism; urged that South Africa remain neutral during a war in which Britain might be involved; and generally maintained its thoroughgoing anti-native, anti-colored and anti-Semitic position. In the balloting the Nationalists won 6 seats, bringing their total to 27, but the United party, with 111 seats, did not lose its top-heavy majority.

Almost immediately afterward, two local political tempests threatened to shatter the Government coalition. A sharp controversy, deeply rooted in historic national rivalries, broke out when an anthem of the Afrikaans-speaking population, 'Die Stem van Suid-Afrika,' was played at several military parades on May 31, the national holiday, while 'God Save the King' was not. With the English-speaking members of the Cabinet up in arms, the Prime Minister was forced to issue a statement on June 2 to the effect that there was no official anthem for the Union and that both 'Die Stem' and 'God Save the King' would be played together on appropriate occasions. Injured feelings lingered on both sides. The Government encountered further difficulties when, early in September, it violated customary constitutional procedure in attempting, by rather questionable methods, to retain in the Cabinet a capable minister who had been defeated in the general election.

At the same time, other perils to South African national unity became apparent. The new arrangement for the separate communal representation of the 7,000,000 natives gave promise in 1938 of working out to their disadvantage. The Government rejected the recommendations of the Native Representative Council for better educational facilities for the natives. The anti-Semitic movement also made progress: a Jew-baiting outburst occurred in Johannesburg in November. Meanwhile, despite restrictive measures taken in 1937, the German population of the mandated territory of Southwest Africa had been subjected to strenuous regimentation into Nazi organizations. While the Government appeared to remain as firmly opposed as ever to retrocession of the territory to the Reich, it was obviously deeply concerned with Germany's drive for colonies. This anxiety was manifested in the journey of Oswald Pirow, South African Defense Minister, to Europe — and to Germany — in the closing months of 1938 — a journey whose results, if any, were not made public.