28 president's address. 



The selected youths of the country who have been sent abroad 

 for study also return with this enlarged devotion to South Africa 

 as a nation, and can view the latter in its proper perspective. 



The growth of a new national consciousness on the part of 

 Europeans and their descendants in a new country has many 

 features of interest. The newcomer, as remarked above, first 

 views the country through the eyes of the one he has left. Usually 

 this attitude persists only for a time, particularly in the case of the 

 permanent settler. Gradually he begins to regard the affairs of 

 his adopted country as bearing closely on his personal interests, 

 and those of the mother country become less and less obtrusive. 

 The first generation, however, rarely loses a primary regard for 

 the old country, and is prepared whole-heartedly to uphold at all 

 costs it and all for which it stands. The second and succeeding 

 generations, however, have none of this intimate attachment. 

 They only know the country of adoption and all their interests, 

 social and material, are bound up with it. They wisely throw in 

 their lot completely with the new country, and the old recedes 

 further and further; a new individual national consciousness is 

 evolved. The process is well exemplified in South Africa in 

 descendants of both Dutch and English stock. They have 

 developed a new national life along its own lines, with its own 

 traditions and aspirations; moreover, they are disposed to view 

 with disfavour the newcomer from the country of origin, inclined 

 maybe to disparage the new nationalism in favour of the old. 

 Each South African, British or Dutch, is naturally proud and 

 jealous of the good name and repute of his adopted country in 

 which he has a share, and to the progress of which he has given 

 his all. 



This is the unifying process we see on its largest scale in the 

 conglomeration of nationalities in the United States. It has also 

 consolidated with a new national solidarity the various British 

 stocks in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, and is rapidly 

 effecting the same for both British and Dutch in South Africa. 

 A sentimental regard still persists for the history and traditions 

 of the old country, but it is secondary to that for their own. Dr. 

 Keith has truly remarked: "The arrival in a new land of immi- 

 grants from diverse countries breaks down the national barriers 

 within which they were born and bred. A national spirit breeds 

 true only in its native soil; when transplanted to a new land it 

 becomes plastic and mouldable. A new country dissolves ancient 

 nationalities"; and, he might have added, "invigorates a new 

 nationality." 



A Benevolent Aristocracy of Ability. 

 If the conclusions which I have presented are correct the 

 Bantu, Indian, Malay, Eur-African, and European will remain 

 distinct elements of the population of South Africa, commingling 

 in every-day matters, but in their social lives apart, each accord- 

 ing to its own group consciousness, all loyal to their country and 

 empire. It is in the competition in everyday affairs, in the over- 

 lapping for trade and industrial purposes, that any serious clash 



