20 president's address. 



the general trend of opinion and effort in South Africa is unques- 

 tionably in the direction of making white and colour sympathetic 

 co-partners in the national life, each in its own sphere ; and it is 

 well worthy of consideration whether in the end national bonds 

 and loyalty will not replace and be stronger than racial. To admit 

 the possibility of this is much to ask of believers in the paramount 

 solidarity of races. If, as its supporters sincerely hope, the treat- 

 ment meted out to the native in South Africa should demonstrate 

 the reality of national loyalty as against racial the country will 

 have conferred a signal service on humanity, in dispelling the 

 nightmare of future inter-racial conflict. Probably no other 

 country is so well situated for a racio-national experiment of this 

 far-reaching import. 



At the present time national loyalty is undoubtedly a con- 

 spicuous feature among the various coloured peoples in South 

 Africa, as was loyalty and support to the Empire during the late 

 war. Loyaltv to the Government and to the Crown is manifested 

 on all public occasions, and there is no reason to question its 

 reality. Whether it can be relied upon in times of inter-racial 

 stress, whether adherence to country will transcend obligations to 

 race, only the future will show. But it is the aim of its states- 

 men, its leaders of thought and action, to bind by fairness, 

 justice, and sympathy all the races into one true South African 

 nation. 



White Solidarity. 



Not only does South Africa contain a diversity of races which 

 do not blend, but it also offers one of the most notable examples 

 of the continued separation of stock derived from two closely 

 allied European nationalities, Dutch and English. A somewhat 

 analogous lack of fusion also occurs in Canada between French 

 and English, but here geographical isolation is undoubtedly a 

 factor, whereas in South Africa the two peoples freely intermingle, 

 both in town and country. 



The lack of solidarity of the two white nationalities in South 

 Africa can only be understood when viewed historically. The 

 Dutch are mainly the descendants of the settlers who came in the 

 seventeenth century. In the two or three hundred years of their 

 occupancy they have largely severed their connection with the 

 mother country and have evolved a real South African nationalism 

 of their own, and become deeply attached to the country and all 

 that it holds for them. They have wholly thrown in their lot 

 with the country of their adoption and their lives are centred 

 therein. Few now come from the country of origin, Holland, and 

 these have little or no influence in keeping awake any sentimental 

 regard towards it. Of late, however, many efforts have been made 

 to draw the intellectual and economic ties more closely. The 

 British on the other hand, in any numbers, are recent immigrants, 

 coming mostly within the last century, while others still continue 

 to arrive. The older settlers and their descendants have scarcely 

 yet had time to lose their sentimental connection with the mother 

 country, and it is kept alive by the constant influx of newcomers, 



