If this be sound doctrine, then it must be admitted that we have need to walk more warily than elsewhere in our dealings with South Africa. Here the conditions are altogether different from those of the other Colonies. The spirit of nationalism is there, it is true. Unfortunately, it has been regarded as the monopoly till now of one particular section of the population, and that the section which is least of all concerned to construct out of local patriotism a coherent British Empire. 'A national party,' 'the national language,' 'education on national lines'—these phrases, harmless enough in themselves, have a special and sinister significance in South Africa. They are the chosen watchwords of a creed in which the Imperial connection has no place.
And if the internal circumstances of South Africa are radically different from those of Australia and Canada, so also has been the history of her relations with the Mother Country. Quite apart from any deliberate feeling of hostility to Great Britain, it is impossible to ignore the fact that Downing Street does still stand to the ordinary South African mind for spasmodic, vexatious interference, and that it will take years of sympathy to efface this impression. We are reaping in the mistrust of our colonists the fruits of a long series of 'regrettable incidents' in the past. It is still more impossible to forget that one great political party in England—the party, too, which is identified by tradition with the encouragement of free colonial development—has even in these latter days done an incredible amount of harm by trying to thwart the wishes of a South African Colony in her own domestic affairs. Such episodes as the Chinese labour debates in the House of Commons, may do much to develop a spirit of nationalism in South Africa, but they will develop it at the expense of the Imperial connection.
Fortunately, the general trend of opinion in England is towards a greater respect for her Colonies. The Mother Country has given of the best of her statesmen to govern South Africa. She has recently bestowed
