The South African policy of the British Labour government, 1947–51
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9916111 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ritchie Ovendale (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1982 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 41-58 |
| Publication date | 1982-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2620157 |
| OpenAlex | W2268538677 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
In 1899 Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State for Colonies, and Sir Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner, fought to maintain British supremacy in South Africa. The Cabinet was told that the contest for supremacy was between 'the Dutch and the English': what was at stake was the position of Great Britain in South Africa, 'and with it the estimate formed of our power and influence in Colonies throughout the world'.' At the same time, in the Transvaal, a memorandum by the State Attorney, J. C. Smuts, was accepted by the Volksraad: South Africa was to become a great state with an Afrikaner republic stretching from Table Bay to the Zambezi; the British were to be driven into the sea.2 The Second Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902, was won by Britain, but in 1906-07 the new Liberal administration 'magnanimously' granted responsible government first to the Transvaal and then to the Orange River Colony, effectively ensuring that South Africa would be ruled by Afrikaner Calvinists, and that it would be English-speaking South Africans and the non-European inhabitants that had to pay the price of this gesture. Milner, a great liberal statesman, had agreed to the insertion of a clause in the Treaty of Vereeniging-which ended the war-stating that the British government would not legislate for the blacks in the former Boer republics until these had achieved self-government. He regarded this as a mistake, but realized that without such a clause the war would have continued indefinitely. As early as 1901 Milner argued that any new self-governing confederation in South Africa could only be started with a British minded majority. He gave precise calculations as to how this could be achieved, and the Afrikaners never forgot these whenever the question of British immigration was raised. Indeed, until the 1960s the 'race problem' in South Africa referred not to the black-white issue, but to relations between Afrikaners and English-speaking South Africans.3 With the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 English-speaking South Africans remained loyal to the imperial connection, but on the whole they followed the policy of conciliation advanced by the Boer War leaders, Smuts and Louis Botha. This meant that no English party emerged to balance the power of Afrikaner nationalism. Indeed, during the First World War, the manhood of English-speaking South Africa was decimated on the fields of Flanders, and the natural leaders were
Annexation · Archaeology · Cabinet (room · CONTEST · Economic history · Government (linguistics · League · Memorandum · Political science · Politics · State (computer science · Treaty · History · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · South African History and Culture
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 1985 - 2011 (27) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |