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Report on General J.B.M. Hertzog's Speech at Germiston, 5 December 1911.

[The Star, 8 December 1911]

General Hertzog analysed the different elements which, in his opinion, formed South African society. He said they must look facts in the face. They had two streams of life in South Africa. On the one hand were the old Dutch-speaking South Africans right through the country. They had the true South African feeling, and for them there was no other country. That portion of the people had its own national life and national spirit, but it was only a portion of the nation in South Africa. Then they had the old English population in South Africa. That portion of the English-speaking population had, like the Dutch people, been long in the country and they felt themselves at home in this land. They also had no other country. They formed a very large portion of the English-speaking people of South Africa. But there was a third class in South Africa. It was formed of persons who were not yet what he (the speaker) called South Africans. It was a class which was here with good intentions, but it had not made itself at home, and had not, as yet, joined the ranks either of the old Dutch or of the old English portions, and it felt that it was ready to shake the dust of the country off its feet whenever those things from which it drew benefits existed no longer.

He was only drawing their attention to facts. The last class which he had referred to was to be found in every young country to which people flocked. The people forming it had always a strong feeling for their motherland and wished to return to that land. These people were South Africans from a legal point of view and they had the franchise but these things did not give them the national spirit or help them to enter into the national life. Up to a short time ago ? up to the National Convention ? though they had two strong South African teams [sic], both with the true South African spirit, these had not worked together, and had not been able to work together in order to create one South African national life. The English stream had gone one way and the Dutch stream had gone another. But, fortunately, one of the good consequences of the war had been that they were now placed in such a position that the opportunity existed for these two streams to fuse, and what was the result today?

Nobody could deny that at the South African Party conference in Bloemfontein the other day the two streams of old English and old Dutch had arrived at a stage at which they had agreed to lead their n ational South African life together. (In his English-spoken summary later in the evening General Hertzog said in this connection : " The streams still flow, though a good deal of the one has been diverted into the course of the other .") In Parliament they saw that real South Africans, whether Dutch or English, had ab s olutely decided to form a true national South African spirit and life.

Now he came to the other element ? the element which regarded South Africa as a strange country. He did not wish to say who belonged to this party, but would rather say that they were all people to whom the national spirit was strange. Let them consider the influence of party politics. The party system was a splendid thing to forward personal interests. The causes which had in the past stood in the way of South Africa becoming one nation were now being used to strengthen party politic s and to keep English-speaking people away from the Dutch. If they wanted a national spirit it must be Dutch and English. He reminded them that during the elections the cry of " Vote British " had been raised. If his memory served him right . Sir Percy Fitzpatrick had always been using that. That was a proof of the truth of what he had been saying about party politics.

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