A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Those persons who desire to see the disruption of the British Empire will have little cause to rejoice at the outcome of the elections in South Africa. The overwhelming defeat of the secessionist party shows that the Boers, at least, will not be the ones to inaugurate a dismemberment movement.

Many pessimists and others working against British unity confidently prophesied that the period of reaction after the war, with its talk of independence, would see concerted movements on the part of the British colonies to gain their liberty.

In the Cape colonies the independence movement reached its climax with the recent elections. Had the present prime-minister of the Union of South Africa, General Jan Smuts, been defeated by General Herzog and the labor leader, Robert J. Creswell, representing the secessionist faction, the outcome would undoubtedly have meant withdrawal from the Empire. General Smuts, however, by his decisive victory has assuredly prevented any such occurrence and has shown England that a cool-headed and self-respecting people can be relied upon in such an internal crisis.

Coming, as it does, at this period of political unrest in the British Empire, the election acquires a far-reaching significance. The general restlessness among the various Dominions had reached a turning point; General Smuts' reelection has definitely swung the tide and has furnished an example of loyalty which will be widely imitated. General Smuts and South Africa were little known before 1914. They gained the admiration of the world during the was and they have now added even more to this feeling of respect.