der his influence the land
which still bore the scars of war was turned to plenty. He was a farmer
and he bent his energy and leadership to the rebuilding of the shattered
commonwealths. Their hope lay in the soil. His right arm was Smuts, who
became successively Minister of Finance and Minister of Public Defense.

The belief that reconciliation had dawned was rudely disturbed when the
Great War crashed into civilization. The extreme Nationalists rebelled
and it was Botha, aided by Smuts, who crushed them. Beyers, the
ringleader, was drowned while trying to escape across the Vaal River,
DeWet was defeated in the field, De la Rey was accidentally shot, and
Maritz became a fugitive. Botha then conquered the Germans in German
South-West Africa and Smuts subsequently took over the command of the
Allied Forces in German East Africa. When Botha died in 1919 Smuts not
only assumed the Premiership of the Union but he also inherited the
bitter enmity that General J. B. M. Hertzog bore towards his lamented
Chief.

Now we come to the crux of the whole business, past and present. Who is
Hertzog and what does he stand for?

If you look at your history of the Boer War you will see that one of the
first Dutch Generals to take the field and one of the last to leave it
was Hertzog, an Orange Free State lawyer who had won distinction on the
Bench. He helped to frame the Union Constitution and on the day he
signed it, declared that it was a distinct epoch in his life. A Boer of
the Boers, he seemed to catch for the moment, the contagion that
radiated from Botha and spelled a Greater South Africa.

Botha made him Minister of Justice and all was well. But deep down in
his heart Hertzog remained unrepentant. When the question of South
Africa's contribution to the Imperial Navy came up in 1912 he fought it
tooth and nail. In fiery utterances attacking the Government he
denounced Botha as a jingoist and an imperialist. Just about this time
he made the famous speech in which he stated his ideal of South Africa.
He declared that Briton and Boer were "two separate streams"--two
nationalities each flowing in a separate channel. The "two streams"
slogan is now the Nationalist battlecry.

Such procedure on the part of Hertzog demanded prompt action on the part
of Botha, who called upon his colleague either to suppress his
particular brand of anathema or resign. Hertzog not only built a bigger
bonfire of denunciation but refused to resign.

Bo