South Africa at War

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HITH AFRICA
T WAR

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Compiled by the
SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND INFORMATION OFFICE

SOUTH AFRICA
AT WAR

STOW TEXAS STATE COLLEGE

; S M MAKUUS, ITXAS

uomp Ue d by the
SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND INFORMATION OFFICE

3101 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington, D. C.

CONTENTS

Part I

Strategic Importance — -Keeping the Cape Sea Route Open
— Axis Threat in the North — The War in East Africa —
The Springboks in North Africa — South African Women's
Contribution to War Effort.

Part

How South Africa Mobilised Her Industries for War-
Supplies for the Allies — -"Repair Shop of the Middle
East" — Rocketing Production Targets— Notable Contri-
butions by South African Railways — Post- War Planning.

Part

South Africa and Its People — Building a Nation— Histori-
cal and Political Background — How the Union Came into
Being — Neutrality Issue — The Government — Represen-
tation in the United States of America.

Union of South Africa

South Wv*t Africa

The area nf i.h« Union of South Africa (4?2,5SQ Bfiare miles)
.i 1(M m, in comparison v^ith th« nr«i oi the United States of ^neriee
m iquare mile I and tin n 1 oi the fcfrioan Continent. 1 he

p { South \VV n Mr'mu fonimrl) Cm-man, il 322,450 iquiM mile*.

South Africa at War

PREFACE

The Union of South Africa severed relations with Germany on
September 4, 1939, struck the first Allied blow against Italy in East
Africa on June 11, 1940, and since December 16, 1940, her armed
forces have been in almost unbroken combat with Axis forces in
East and North Africa. South Africa's part has been played largely
out of the limelight, but she has achieved outstanding results and
her total war effort, on the home industrial front no less than in
the field, easily bears comparison with the efforts of any of the
United Nations.

South Africa is a free and independent member of the British
Commonwealth of Nations, a Dominion in voluntary partnership
with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain, and was
free to choose to participate in the war or to remain neutral. The
fact that the majority of her white population of 2,230,000 are not
of British but are mainly of Dutch and French Huguenot descent,
and therefore not moved by sentimental ties when Britain declared
war, makes South Africa's prompt entry into the war the more note-
worthy. South Africa was under no illusions about the Axis and
saw clearly the dangers w r hich would beset her and her own British
neighbours in Southern Africa if she did not take timely steps to
meet aggression. Rich in strategic minerals and ores and food resources
the Union was a most tempting prize at the foot of the African
Continent. Moreover, possession of South Africa would put the
enemy astride the all -important Cape sea route between the West
and the East and effectively throttle this vital channel of supplies to
the Middle East.

These dangers apart, there was also South Africa's sense of respon-
sibility to her fellow 7 partners, the nations of the British Common-
wealth, jointly forming a powerful bulwark in defence of freedom
and democracy — of those ideals to which all the United Nations
have now subscribed. Largely unmoved by any sense of obligation to
an overseas Motherland, South Africa by her entry into the war
played the part expected of a free and freedom-loving country.
"There is," says South Africa's Prime Minister, Field Marshal Jan
Chnsliaan Smuts, tf no blot on our sovereign independence. We
arh-d as a frre and huiimmihlr people. Dishonour and sovereignty
do not yjt well hip 1 1 ier."

PART I

Two threats:

the strategic picture

Strategically, South Africa faced two great dangers when war
broke out — enemy interference with British and Allied shipping
calling at South African ports, and the threat of an Axis push from
the north, from Mussolini's East African empire, through the thinly
populated and lightly defended British colonies, Kenya, Uganda,
Tanganyika, and Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Field Marshal
(then General) Smuts correctly anticipated from the outset that it
was only a matter, of time before Italy would enter the war on
Hitler's side and threaten Southern Africa with his East African
army of 200,000 men. South Africa had experience of South Atlantic
enemy raiders in the last Great War and fully appreciated the poten-
tial danger to the sea lanes round the Cape.

The Union had no navy of its own when war broke out, but relied
for the protection of its ports upon the cooperation of its land and
air forces with the British naval units stationed at Simonstown (near
Cape Town) . With heavy burdens devolving upon the British Navy,
South Africa took immediate steps to strengthen its coastal defences
and to help to safeguard the Gape sea route to the Middle East and
Far East. A Seaward Defence Force was created and a number of
fishing trawlers^ whalers and other small peacetime craft were equipped
for minesweeping, anti-submarine and patrol and examination work.
These little vessels did very effective work and it was later found
possible to send South African minesweeping and anti-submarine
flotillas to the Mediterranean. During 1942 the Seaward Defence
Force became the "South African Naval Forces," and South Africa
is now beginning to talk of having a Navy of its own.

Specially important in South Africa's scheme of Seaward Defence
was the work of the bomber reconnaissance squadrons of the South
African Air Force. These maintained long-range patrols along the
Southern African coastline and registered their first score early in
December, 1939, when the German ship "Watussi" was intercepted
south of Cape Town. Later some Italian ships were rounded up by
I fir Si mi I h African Air Force and more recently the Air Force, co-
operating with South African and British patrol vessels, rounded
up ;i cDiivn) of Viv.Uy French ships attempting to pass the Cape.

A Surprise for the Duce

On land, preparations were pushed forward not. only to defend
the Union hut to meet aggression far beyond the Union's own bor-
ders. How the Union of South Africa met and surmounted tremen-
dous difficulties in raising and equipping an army and meeting
supply problems at home and in the field will be described later. *or
thin bird's-eye survey of operations against the enemy the story of
land fighting in Africa opens with Italy's entry into the war on
June 10, 1940. South Africa had a surprise ready for the Duce.
The South African Air Force, the Union's premier striking arm, had
taken up battle stations in Northern Kenya, some two thousand
miles north of the Union itself. Within a few hours of the jackal
emerging to share Hitler's prey the South Africans were off on the
hunt. On June 11th the General Staff Communique from Nairobi
stated: "Heavy bombers of the South African Air Force attacked
Moyale and vicinity in Abyssinia with conspicuous success ...
Among other damage, the bombers destroyed a great shed packed
with motor transport. The South African Air Force has been con-
tinuouslv in action since that date and South African fighter and
bomber pilots have played a big part in routing the Axis forces
in Africa.

Offensive in East Africa

It was some months before the South African troops, the "Spring-
boks," were ready to take the field in East Africa. (The springbok is
a graceful type of South African antelope which is the Unions
national emblem, and South African sportsmen participating in inter-
national contests, notably Rugby-football, are known as "Spring-
boks.") While the South African Air Force was pounding at Italian
bases in Abvssinia and gathering invaluable information from recon-
naissance flights deep into enemy territory, South African troops
were streaming into base camps in Northern Kenya to undergo
intensive training under the desert conditions under which, only a
few months later, they were to fight. Frontier outposts were manned
and frequently, in patrol actions, the men had a foretaste ot the
real thing. South African engineers were meanwhile working won-
ders in deserts formerly marked only by the tracks of Somali camel
caravans. Roads were built and wells established at strategic joints

and the wastes converted into a land Bup 'ling the largest armed

force ever sent outside tbc Union.

By tin I the year 104.0 the South Africans, well equipped

and well trained, were ready i" itrike and their Brei action, appro-
priately enough, tooli place W 'Dingaau i Day, a

u al holiday In South Africa eon atlag i Fam ■ epfc i

?1 \- f ^&ezx%&m&& .

Opening; phase of the attack against Abyssinia and Italian Somaliland. A
South African convoy crossing the desert with supplies for Springbok troops.

in hostile country in the history of the South African pioneers a
century ago. The action, the first real hattle in the East African
campaign, was completely successful. On Christmas Day a South
African convoy stretching thirty-five miles across the desert was
moving into position for the general offensive.

Several books have been written about the East African campaign
and the major role played in it by the South African forces. There
is the semiofficial account, "Vanguard of Victory," written by two
war correspondents of the South African Bureau of Information.
There is Carel Birkby's "Springbok Victory," Eric Rosenthal's "The
Fall of Italian East Africa," and there is the British official story of the
conquest of Italian East Africa, "The Abyssinian Campaigns," which
records the part played by the various Imperial as well as by the
South African forces. It is a fascinating story of campaigning under
great hardships, in incredibly difficult country, under extremes of
heat and cold. Il tells how South Africans dislodged the enemy from
one stronghold after another, how their engineers overcame seem-
ingly in,Kii|KTiiblr difficulties, how they won l.he race to Addis Ababa
which ibey wore the lirsi lo en I or, how they advanced 1,725 miles in
53 day* and utit inal ihe dealh when ibe Duke of Aosla surrendered.

"No history of the East African Campaign," says the British
official account, "is complete which failfl to pay tribute to the
work of the South Africans. Their infaiilry brigades acquitted
themselves with distinction on every occasion when they were in
action, and their technical units, which assisted both East African
and West African brigades, played an important part in almost
every battle. Every soldier who fought in Kenya, Italian Somali-
land or Abyssinia knows how much our victory owes to the work
of the South African artillery, the South African engineers and
the South African medical units. He also knows how much it
meant, during the weeks of advance across coverless deserts and
congested passes, not to be subjected to relentless air attack. For
his freedom of movement, which was so largely responsible for
the record-breaking achievements of that remarkable two months,
he has to thank the South African Air Force."
The campaign was over in May, 1941. The enemy was cleared
from the shores of the Red Sea and the way was open for Allied
ships to take men and material to the Middle East. In June it was
announced that the first contingent of South African troops had
arrived in North Africa and that the South African Air Force was
operating there with the Royal Air Force.

The Threat from Japan

South Africa sent splendid fighting men to the Middle East and
they were well equipped. South Africa has known war and fighting
through many generations and Afrikaans and English-speaking South
Africans come of equally fine fighting stock. Intellectually and physi-
cally both races in South Africa breed strong individualists. A high
British officer once described the Springboks as "tanks among men"
and they are renowned for their qualities as commando or guerilla
fighters. The word "commando" first became familiar during the
Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 when the swift-moving Dutch Repub-
lican columns caught the interest of the world as they struck at
and evaded the greatly superior British forces. Today, as in the War
of 1914-1918, Afrikaners and Britons are fighting side by side and
they share the fighting qualities which, a generation ago, had made
their fathers respect each other.

Bearing in mind that South Africa has a population of only
2,230,000 whites from whom to draw her fighting men— the Nnli wh
(the black Bantu races) being not, as yd, armed for combatant
purposes— she has, with more than 200,000 men under arms, estab*
lished no mean record in this WBX< Strang FoTCMM are NfajJ retained

in South Africa Cot the Ltatafi own dnieneo, Tor Souih A|Wcb In
dird faced a leeotid ffcom wfatn I-m mm catered the w?tr.i South
\i,n. 1 1 ii.ni i luddenl) i m 1 i m * Ignlfieaiusa ti Brltiih

South African-made howitzers on the testing ground. The topees and bush
shirts worn by the gun crew are typical of the South African Army uniform.

and Allied naval bases fell in the Far East and the enemy has already
repeatedly struck at Allied shipping off the African East coast. In
March, 1942, General Smuts told the Union Parliament that Japan
constituted a more fundamental menace to the Union than any
European power and the situation was unprecedented. If the coun-
try were attacked by Japan he would not hesitate to use any weapon
in defending South Africa's security but would train and arm
Natives to help to defend South Africa.

Strong Forces in Desert

Two months later it was announced that South African forces,
assisted by a strong contingent of the South African Air Force, were
operating in Madagascar.

The focal point of South Africa's war effort in the field, however,
remained in North Africa where, after June, 1941, the Union built
up powerful expeditionary units to operate with the British Eighth
Army. South Africa contributed two full divisions to the Allied
forces in the Middle Fast, the First and the Second Divisions, but
these represruird only part of her expeditionary units. There was

the South African Air Force, flying mainly American-built bombers
and fighters, manned by Afrikaans and Kn^lisli-sprnking young men
who were veterans of the East African cnmpjiifni. There were con-
struction, maintenance and repair units carrying out invaluable
work at the base camps; there were medical and nursing units, road-
making units, and all those other bodies, working behind the lines,
which are essential to maintaining an army in the field. There were
even water-divining units who discovered water under the desert
sands where the wandering Arabs had not suspected its presence.
There were hundreds of South African girls in Cairo who had gone
north as members of the South African Women's Auxiliary Army
Services and of the South African Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

While the Springbok forces in North Africa were being built up,
South African airmen were repeatedly in action against the enemy
and participated in the evacuation of Crete. A South African railway
construction company crossed into Palestine and Syria and built an
important railway line through difficult country along the Mediter-
ranean coast. A pioneering corps of Natives from Basutoland (the
Native protectorate in the Union) provided the labour force. The
Springboks repeatedly engaged in patrol actions with the enemy.

Sidi Resegh

Their first big test came at the battle of Sidi Resegh in November,
1941, when for two days South African infantry faced and held a
powerful German panzer force. This battle has been compared with
the famous stand by the South African Infantry Brigade at Delville
Wood in July, 1916, when they held a vital sector of the Allied
front line for five days and nights at a terrific cost. Delville Wood
Sunday is reverently commemorated in South Africa every year. Of
Sidi Resegh it has been officially stated that the Fifth South African
Brigade participating in the battle gained "limitless distinction."

A few weeks later the South African Second Division gained its
first battle honours. Within fourteen days in December, 1941, and
January, 1942, the Second Division, commanded by Major General
I. P. deVilliers, scored a "hat trick," taking Bardia, Solium, and
Half ay a Pass. In the near-disaster that overtook the Eighth Army
in June, 1942, when Rommel pushed his way into Egypt, the Second
Division, then commanded by Major General H. B, Klopper, suffered
grievous losses in the fall of Tobruk. The Fi rs I Division, commanded
by Major General Dan Pienaar (a Imlliaul ami popular officer who
lost his life in a flying aecidrnf in I >rrrrnl >n\ 1942), fought Its way
mil qf Qagala and subsequent played an important part in stopping

KomrnH'H advance al Kl \ hmi'i h . On Ootobet 23, L942, when \\\r

Eighth \imi\ commenced Us tfiol advance thai swept Rommel

out oJ Egypl and Libya, it wti the Springboki o'J the Soith African

Planning and plotting the next move "out in the blue." South African
armoured cars engaged in daring patrol work in the East African Campaign,

First Division who set the ball rolling at El Alamein and took all
their objectives in the first few hours of hard fighting. After that they
were well to the fore in the hunt across the Libyan sands.

Meanwhile General Smuts had appealed to South Africa to "avenge
Tobruk" and in September he was able to tell the country that his
appeal for 7,000 recruits had resulted in the enrolment of nearly
10,000 men and 2,000 women. The Second Division was more than
replaced and Tobruk was fully avenged. South African armoured
cars led the way when Tobruk was reoccupied by the Eighth Army.

Every Man a Volunteer

The term "recruits*' requires explanation. The Union Govern-
ment has the power to conscript under the South African Defence
Act of 1912 and may call on every able-bodied man to serve in the
defence of his country, within or without the Union. This power
has never been invoked and in this war as well as in the last every
single South African soldier is a volunteer. To overcome a certain
difficulty of interpretation as to what "without the Union" meant
recruits signed a special attestation uinlcriakin^ fcq serve anywhere

on the African Continent and every soldier wears an orange flash
on each shoulder indicating that he is a vofateer prepared to serve
anywhere in Africa.

"Anywhere in Africa" also requires a word of explanation. When
the South African Parliament resolved to enter the war on Septem-
ber 4, 1939, it was with the proviso that South African troops would
not be sent overseas as was done in the last Great War. It has been
suggested that this was partly dictated by a desire not to exacerbate
isolationist sentiment in South Africa— because an isolationist mi-
nority opposed South Africa's entry into the war. A more pressing
reason is suggested by the development of the war itself. General
Smuts and his Government correctly anticipated that Africa itself
would sooner or later be drawn into the maelstrom and that the
small South African nation— which despite its handful of two and a
quarter million whites is the largest settled white community on the
whole of the African Continent— would have to face dangerous
threats in Africa. At the outset of the war many thousands of South
Africans would have made any sacrifice to go to France as their
fathers had done, and General Smuts's demand that they should
remain and prepare for the danger nearer home was a supreme test
of their loyalty and sense of duty. The war came to them speedily
enough and their trust and confidence in their great leader has been
more than justified.

Service Outside Africa

On his return from London in November, 1942, General Smuts
paid a flying visit to the Middle East battlefield, as he has done from
time to time since the Springboks moved north. He subsequently
announced that the South African Parliament would be asked to
sanction the dispatch of South African troops to non-African thea-
tres of war once the situation in North Africa had been cleared up.
This announcement was received with enthusiasm by the Springboks,
troops returning from operations in Madagascar cheering wildly when
they heard the news in Johannesburg. On February 4th, 1943, the
South African Parliament duly adopted a motion permitting South
African soldiers to serve overseas and the Springboks immediately
began to attest for overseas service.

South Africa is continuing to build up her fighting forces. In June,
1942, General Smuts announced the Government's decision t' . con-
vert the two South African Divisions in the north into tank divisions.
He also announced the ro-organisalion of ihr Smilh African Army
on the home froiil inlo two now fnminimilH, the Inland Command
under Major Crnmil George Stink, IVA the 1 ipaitfl] < lommaml mnler
Major General I. V. deVilliera, Held Iti PfiierVfl all &W£ the country
are llie ohl Umj;lu i (eitfe©n) Go nunl'xt. mm loo Old lor flu frOftt,

Inspecting and counting booty captured from the enemy in Abyesinia where,
crushing all resistance, the South Africans advanced 1,725 miles in 53 days.

but who are amongst the world's best marksmen, steeped in the
tradition of mobile fighting, of quick movement and individual think-
ing. They are South Africa's "Home Guard" and they are made
of stern stuff.

In September, 1942, it was announced that a new Southern
African Command had been established under which Southern
Rhodesian Forces are placed at the disposal of the General Officer
Commanding the South African Defence Forces. This step was taken
after full consultation between Southern Rhodesia (one of the most
senior of the British Colonies) and the Union of South Africa.

Air -Training Scheme

South Africa did not participate in the Empire Air-Training Scheme
in Canada as she was already engaged in an intensive air- training
scheme when war broke out and needed all her fighting men at home.
Moreover, South Africa, with its great plains and unlimited sun-
shine, is an ideal country for flying. An invitation was extended to
Cm-Li [trikiiri to train H.A.F. personnel in South Africa in coopera-
tion wild Mi* 1 Soli ih African Air Fuht I ruining scheme. Full advan-

tage has been taken of this offer and strong contingents of R.A.F.
men have trained with the Springbok airmen at training schools
scattered all oyer the Union.

South African airmen are now required to undergo preliminary
training with armoured car units with a view to closer cooperation
between air and ground forces. August, 1942, saw the formation of
a Glider Wing as an important part in the training of air pupils for
the South African Air Force. A "Help Aviation" movement has
caught the enthusiasm of South African youth, school boys and
girls joining Junior Air Force Clubs and receiving simple technical
instruction.

Some six or seven hundred South Africans who joined before the
war or were permitted to leave South Africa in the early months of
the war are serving with the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom
and between them they had collected up to the end of 1942 nearly a
hundred awards for gallantry. Two of them, Squadron Leader John
Nettleton, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for the daring day-
light raid on Augsburg (Germany), and Wing Commander A, G.
Malan, D.F.C. (with Bar) , D.S.O. (with Bar) , who long held the record
as Britain's ace fighter pilot, paid brief visits to the United States
during 1942.

Another South African who has gained the Victoria Cross in this
war is Sergeant Quintin Smythe who was awarded this high distinc-
tion for gallantry in action with the South Africans at Alem Hamza
on the North African battlefield on June 5, 1942.

Port Development

On the naval side of the picture there are hundreds of South
Africans, Royal Naval Volunteer Reservists, who are serving with
the British Navy. On February 28, 1942, General Smuts laid the
foundation stone of a South African Naval Training Base at Cape
Town and six months later a Royal Naval Officers' Training Estab-
lishment was started near Port Elizabeth (Cape) and commissioned
as "H.M.S. Good Hope;' This establishment trains men who, having
served on the lower deck, have been recommended for commissions.

Meanwhile South Africa's ports were being equipped to meet the
demands made on them by the great convoy traffic round the Cape
and by the loss of naval bases in the Far East. Cape Town's ambitious
port development scheme, started before the war, is being ripidly
pushed forward. The city will have our nf the greatest ducks in the
Southern Hemisphere, the scheme emhraring a graving dock which
will accommodate the world's largesi whips. Kusl London is l<> have
a graving dock eapnhle of taking IfiJfa "" "'hm! vessels ;iud llie

larger me of Britiih cruiner, and in Durban*) akead) extensive
poi l facilities will he added i fl tag ii ) dook

Women Strongly Mobilised

To round off the "field" picture of South Africa's war effort, as
distinct from her industrial war effort which is a remarkable story
in itself, mention must be made of the outstanding contribution
made by the women of South Africa. The South African women
started to register voluntarily for national service in an emergency
several months before war broke out and they placed their lists at
the Government's disposal in the opening days of World War No, 2.
A Women's Army Corps was promptly formed under Defence Force
regulations and recruits began to pour into the South African
Women's Auxiliary Army Services (the tc Waasies" as they are
known in South Africa) and the South African Women's Auxiliary
Air Force (the "Waafs"). The latest published figure of women doing
full time service under military conditions and discipline in the
"Waasies" and the "Waafs" is over 15,000, and, as mentioned
before, many of these women were sent to East Africa and North
Africa as nurses, typists, technicians, etc. Officer Commanding the
"Waafs" is Doreen Dunning, herself an experienced pilot who, at
the age of 24, was the youngest Lieutenant-Colonel in the British
Commonwealth. Another young South African woman, Lieut. Denny
Morrison, is the first woman in the British Commonwealth to become
an armament instructor and is lecturing to South African pilots and
observers qualifying as armament specialists and instructors, A num-
ber of South African women have been trained as artillery specialists
and help to "man" South Africa's heavy coastal batteries.

More than 65,000 South African women giving part-time service
to the State are members of a voluntary organisation named the
South African Women's Auxiliary Services (the "Sawas"). This body
is efficiently organised on a nation-wide scale and is rendering valued
services in running canteens, organising gifts and comforts, running
rest rooms, giving nursing aid, entertaining troops, etc.

The Natives' Contribution

While they have not, as yet, been sent into the field as combat-
ants, South Africa's non-Europeans (the Natives and the Coloureds)
are making a massive contribution to the country's war effort. Many
thousands of black and coloured (including Malay) troops are in the
army as drivers, cooks, stretcher bearers, labourers, road builders,
etc. A Cape Coloured unit won high official praise during the Abys-
sinian campaign for a remarkable piece of road engineering which
made possible the rapid advance of the British and South African
forces into Eritrea. Non-European labour is of incalculable value to
South Africa's industrial war machine. Some of the Natives, like the
Zulus, are of splendid lighting stock and have repeatedly urged to be
pn milled fcO can v arms in defence of ihe Unimi.

The industrial front:

repair shop

of the Middle East

On the home industrial front in this war the Union of South
Africa has a record to which she can point with justifiable pride.
Industrially, South Africa is a young country. Up to the time of the
first World War South Africa was mainly a pastoral and agricultural
country, the industrial side of the picture being almost completely
filled in by gold and diamond mining developed during the last
quarter of the Nineteenth Century. After 1914, when world trans-
port and supply problems caused South Africa to look to her own
resources, industrialisation took a sudden upward trend which con-
tinued steadily until World War No. 2 forced an advance which
made even South Africans rub their eyes.

In 1917-18 the number of manufacturing establishments in South
Africa was 5,918, employing slightly under 15,000 whites and 84,000
non-Europeans (Natives and Coloureds), the value of the gross out-
put of these factories being £60,000,000 (about $250,000,000), By
1938-39 the number of establishments had grown to 10,256, em-
ploying 144,838 whites and 207,662 non-Europeans and with a gross
output valued at £199,617,000 (about $800,000,000). The latest
official report on the distribution of the Union's working population
shows a total of 741,576 workers in South Africa.

These industries had created a wide field for investment and con-
tributed very materially to South Africa's sound economic position.
Under the stimulus of wartime needs— needs created by inability to
secure many types of vital supplies from overseas— South Africa s
industries have developed at an almost phenomenal rate, considering
the youth of the country, its population limits and restricted tech-
nical resources. As one prominent member of the Government has
put it, South Africa's industries have developed as much in three
years of war as they would normally have done in 25 years.

Industrial legislation in South Africa has kept pace with industrial
activity. The new Workmen's Compensation Act which became law
on January 1, 1943, gives insured persons a 35% benefit more than
previousl v ami <-\ lends the nmgr of pr oducts to which the Act applies.

Pre-War Trade

During the pre-war years Great Britain and South Africa were each
the other's best customer, Great Britain soiling some $175,000,000
worth of goods to South Africa per annum and buying some $50,-
000,000 worth (excluding gold) from South Africa. The United States
was South Africa's next best customer, the balance of trade being
heavily in the U.S.A.'s favour. In 1939 South Africa imported from
the United States to the tune of approximately $70,000,000, chiefly
motor cars, chassis, machinery and clothing, and (excluding gold
bullion) sold goods to the United States to the value of approxi-
mately $10,500,000, chiefly wool, sheepskins, diamonds, asbestos,
manganese ore and chromium ore. The U.S.A.-South African trade
figures showed a sharp increase in 1940, the last year for which,
under wartime regulations, figures were permitted to be published.
United States exports to South Africa reached $104,000,000, while
imports from South Africa, excluding gold, were valued at $47,000,000.
During this period the United States was taking the bulk of the
Union's diamond, chrome and manganese shipments and almost all
of 3,000 long tons of corundum normally exported from South
Africa. Many American inquiries for South African-made products
were received by the Union including crawfish tails, jams, wines,
minerals, ores, skins, etc., the U.S.A. recognising more and more the
Union's potentialities as a source of strategic minerals,

Supplies Cut Off

Industrially and militarily, South Africa had made little or no
preparation for war. Recruiting was soon in full swing, Active Gitizen
Force regiments all over the country rapidly bringing up their num-
bers to war strength. But the recruits had to be equipped as well as
trained, and here lay the rub.

Defence planning before the war was based on the comfortable
theory that it would take at least six months before any European
war directly affected South Africa and that in this period the Union
could secure most of the up-to-date equipment it required from Great
Britain and the United States. This dream was soon dispelled. The
prospect of obtaining early aid from other countries disappeared
with tragic suddenness as the flood-tides of military disaster poured
through Norway, Holland, Belgium and finally through Flanders and
France to the British Channel ports and enemy submarines started
taking an ever-mounting toll of Allied shipping. South Africa was
largely thrown back on its own resources and the realities oi WW m
terms of mass production of arms mist munitiona, clolliiug equip-

meni and f tatuffs, no le than to Ettam oJ hard fighting cm the

Aim ,in Cnnioifiii it i l I , became the mewwe pi South ifrioft'i own

tlrriHM i .il n lihri I ii

Field Marshal Smuts and Dr. van der Bijl, Director-General of War Supplies
(right), inspecting howitzer production in a South African ordnance plant.

When war broke out South Africa had only three factories equipped
to produce war material, the most important of these being a plant,
attached to the South African Mint at Pretoria, which was producing
.303 cartridges in sufficient quantity for the Union's own needs.

Within two years South Africa's war factories increased to more
than 600.

War Supplies Organised

The emergency with which South Africa found herself faced in
the early half of 1940 called for quick decision. Fortunately, the
authority for those decisions and the organisation for initiating
equally quick action had already been created. One of the first acts
of General Smuts on assuming office as Prime Minister and Com-
mander-in-Chief in 1939 was to embark on the bold experiment of
creating a special civilian directorate, independent of military juris-
diction, to acquire technical military stores and material in the
shortest possible time and to train rapidly and efficiently a large
number of Inchmeal workers for war services. 'This l»odv was named
the War Supplies Board and as [tfl I )irer.tnr-( Jruer.il llir I'rirne

Minister appointed an Afrikaans-speaking South African with excep-
tional qualifications s Dr. Hendrik Johannes van der Bijl.

Dr. van der Bijl, short, blond and dapper, is a powerful personality
and an outstanding figure in Empire war production and in the
scientific world generally. He took his degrees at Leipzig and was
for some time assistant professor in physics at Dresden before com-
ing to the United States to carry out research work with the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company and with Western Electric. He
invented more than a score of devices and improvements relating to
telegraph, telephone, wireless, and electrical engineering. One of his
inventions proved invaluable in long-distance telephony, and its
direct result was the establishing in 1914 of telephonic communica-
tion between New York and San Francisco.

Van der Bijl returned to South Africa some twenty years ago to
take charge of the establishment of the South African Iron and Steel
Corporation (Iscor) of which he became the chairman, and also
became chairman of South Africa's Electricity Supply Commission
(Escom). His position thus gave him command of the steel and
electrical resources upon which South Africa's industrial war effort
largely depended, but he brought to his new and formidable task an
even greater asset — an intimate knowledge of the extensive though
widely scattered secondary industrial resources of the country. Armed
with ministerial powers under South Africa's emergency regulations
to organise industry and to coordinate the activities of Government
departments, engineering societies, labour unions, and manufactur-
ers, in order to expedite the production and acquisition of war
supplies of all types, van der Bijl lost no time in rallying to the
service of the nation scores of leaders in mining, engineering, indus-
try, commerce and labour, and the large railway workshops. Through
panels of experts and consultant advisory committees and an execu-
tive labour committee on which the four principal trade unions in
South Africa were permanently represented, the framework of a
comprehensive production organisation was rapidly constructed and
South Africa's wartime industrial machine swept into action.

Plant Improvised

South Africa had no great industries which could immediately be
classified as being unnecessary to the war effort and geared down to
give preference to more important work. There was little scope for
switching skilled labour from any of the existing industries to indus-
tries primarily concerned with war rnjui remains. Another serious
drawback was lhal Snulh Africn had n<> niiirliine tool indnslry and
was compelled lo improvise when il laid down plaul lor \hv. munu-
farLinv of all l hose warlimr n-(|iiii run nl . which il could no lon^rr

import from ihc United Kingdom Mid \

Packing assembled hand grenades. Many thousands of South African women
are in the auxiliary services or doing skilled work in the war factories.

But South Africa improvised and improvised brilliantly. She was
fortunate in the possession of the heavy engineering industries serv-
ing the needs of the great gold-mining industry, in the possession of
important repair and constructional shops serving South Africa's
State-controlled railways and harbours, in the possession of her
young but nourishing iron and steel industry and of almost unlimited
resources in gold, iron ore, and other base metals and raw materials
required for wartime production. Electrical power was cheap and
plentiful. There was also a big explosives industry, mainly serving
the gold mines, one unit alone being the largest of its kind in the
world.

The output of the steel industry at the outbreak of the war was
about 325,000 ingot tons per annum representing less than half the
normal steel consumption of South Africa, the balance being im-
ported mostly from Europe with a small quantity coming from
America. Iscor's production was rapidly stepped up, production com-
ing within measurable distance of South Africa's full wartime
requirements. New plants were brought into production and the
range of war material produced steadily increased. The industry has
ihc id vantage of almost ttnriv&led supplies of raw materials, drawing

the bulk of its supplies of iron ore from its own mine situated at
Thabazimbi ("mountain of iron") in the rmrlhcni Transvaal Prov-
ince. This is a haematite ore of great purity running 65/67% metallic
iron. In 1941 it was announced that Iscor was shipping 40,000 tons
per month of this ore to the United King Jinn ]<> Lake the place of
high grade ore previously obtained from Sweden and Spain. Enor-
mous deposits of high grade iron ore are also available in other parts
of South Africa.

Some Vital Supplies

Coal deposits are extensive, some of South Africa's big electric
power plants being actually situated on coal fields. South Africa's
annual coal output today is approximately 20,000,000 tons which is
playing a vital part in supplying bunkers and the export coal on
which a great deal of the Allies' war effort in the Middle East depends.
That the Union's huge coal reserves are cheaply mined is illustrated
by the fact that the average pit's mouth price of coal during 1941
was just over 5s lOd ($1.17) — the lowest in the world. The collieries
have been able to respond to vital wartime demands made upon them,
thanks to the relatively shallow depths at which the coal can be
mined and to the modern mine equipment installed before the war.
Many new pits have been opened since 1939. Two coal pits near
Johannesburg are alone turning out coal at the rate of 10,000 tons
per day, or roughly 3/i million tons per annum.

South Africa is one of the main sources of supply of manganese
ore in the British Commonwealth and exports supplies to Great
Britain and the United States. The Union also mines extensive
chrome deposits, considerable tonnages of which have been sent to
the United States.

South Africa's pre-war mechanical engineering activities were
largely devoted to the erection of new plants, such as large new
mining redaction plants and the maintenance of machinery installed
in the mines, in the big railway undertakings and in industries
generally. Over the past ten years many new plants have been
erected, including the plants at Iscor itself. Almost all these plants
were built of steel and this activity led to a rapid growth of the
structural steel industry with the result that the plants and equip-
ment in existence at the outbreak of war were both large and modern.
For the size of the country and youth of its industries, South Africa's
ability to undertake structural steel work was exceptional.

Iscor Fills the Breach

Isrur lnvintu' (lit: backbone "< Smith Africa's arms ;irni n itiona

i>i tiiiihi imi , | .I ui i mil if gun I mi rail, tighl boavj botnbii armoiarftd
plftiei lighting vehicle* hip rop*ii . ari pteraijsg tod fot

Pressing steel helmets for Springbok troops. A young iron and steel industry
at Pretoria is the backbone of the Union's arms and munitions production.

anti-tank purposes, high quality carbon steel for small arms com-
ponents, manganese steel for helmets, and special steels for other
technical requirements.

The industry has been rapidly expanded in the past three years.
Iscor's share capital has been increased and provision made to
expand the plant's capacity to 600,000 tons per annum and to extend
the range of finished steel products, One new unit under construc-
tion is a plate mill with a range capable of supplying practically the
whole of the Union's own requirements. This mill is being erected
at Vereeniging near Johannesburg and will form part of the new
large steel works to be erected there.

South African engineering industries generally are being geared
up to maintain essential supplies in farm machinery and implements
required for the national food drive. During 1942 about 4,000 tons
of farm machinery and spare parts were made by local engineering
firms and foundries, but in 1943 it is expected that the output will
reach some 12,000 tons.

The workshops of the gold mines and of the State-controlled
South African Railways & Harbours added their big quotas to the
UliidH*! w;irlniir armaments and BMiniliuus prmlurtmn. The work-

I

Melbourne

From the early months of the war the Cafte sea route has the Seas," the converging point of shipping lanes from

been the United Nations' most vital link between thfl all parts of the free world. Great convoys carrying men

West and the East W i ih the virtual closing of the Medi- \ and material to the Middle East battlefields and elsewhere

terranean the Cnpr became cities morn tin; "Tavern ul have been ^provisioned at Cape Town and Durban.

shops of the mines produced anti-tank guns, heavy bombs, and shells.
The railway workshops produced a large range of gun and mortar
components, gun carriages, fuses, aerial bombs, gun sights, army
vehicle bodies, portable light and power supplies, field electrical
equipment, etc., etc. These workshops also undertook a great volume
of repair work, including urgent shipping repairs.

6 'Repair Shop of the Middle East 33

An outstanding feature of South Africa's war effort is the repairs
carried out in the Union for the Allied forces in the Middle East.
The Union's workshops have been organised to carry out repairs on
a very comprehensive scale for the fighting machines used in North
Africa, and it was estimated at one stage during 1942 that more than
half a million spares had been sent north, Tens of thousands of
replacement parts for guns, tanks and aircraft have been manufac-
tured in the Union and sent north, this service proving of immeasur-
able value in putting damaged fighting equipment back into service
with a minimum of delay.

The Union has been called the "repair shop of the Middle East"
and in this sphere alone has made an incalculable contribution to the
success of the Allied armies in North Africa,

Oil tanks for the British Admiralty have been made in the Union,
pontoons and bridges were made for use in Abyssinia, and steel sec-
tions urgently required for military engineering work in the Middle
East were sent north.

Machine Tool Industry

South Africa has taken a special and just pride in its armoured
car production. A specially designed type of armoured car was pro-
duced for use in rugged and difficult country in Abyssinia. The
chassis and engines for these cars were imported from America and
the bodies were built of South African steel and the wheels shod
with South African-processed bullet-proof rubber. The cars were
well armed, fast, and manoeuvrable and were eminently adapted to
the fast commando type of fighting to which South African soldiers
are accustomed. These cars, which are undergoing constant improve-
ments in design, have proved a model to the United Nations and
have shown their worth also in the sands of the Western Desert.
The Union has produced about 80 different types of army vehicles,
including general service wagons, mobile workshops, petrol tankers,
cable-laying, searchlight, water-pumping and purification lorries,
X-Ray and denial vans, various types of ambulances, wireless trans-
mitter and rsceMng van... Vk&exs gun ran irrs, mortar carriers, etc.

(hu* of the mo\ l remaj busMe chapters in the story qf South Africa's
wai < 1 1 > - 1 1 mi i in- l i i t i:. the m\ in which she imprwi&ed

Assembling a batch of South African -made mortars. Much of the plant for
turning out urgently needed Army requirements was improvised on the spot.

when urgently needed technical supplies from overseas were cut off.
The country, for instance, had no machine tool industry of its own.
But South Africa did the next best thing — a census was taken of
machine tools throughout the country and these were assembled in
larger and more centralised units, and a considerable portion of
South Africa's machine shops became transformed from repair shops
to mass production units. A machine tool industry has now been
started at Johannesburg, and South Africa is gradually filling its own
requirements in this field too. Where urgently needed technical
requirements could not be filled from overseas, South Africa's engi-
neers and technicians invariably managed to improvise something
on the spot, and in some cases they have produced an article which
has been eagerly adopted by their allies.

South Africa has, for instance, developed one of the most advanced
gun sights produced in the British Commonwealth and the British
Government has placed very large orders for this delicate sight which
is mass-produced in a Transvaal factory. It is also the proud boast
nf Smith African technicians and industrialists that they carrier] out
a plan for the production of" howitzers in alio ill. six months, depend-
ing ;iJmnsi exclusively mi Im al materials and loci] Ingenuity* An old

manufacturing country overseas took two years to achieve this
same object.

Because valuable time would be lost in awaiting the importation
of a shell-forging plant, South African engineers ambitiously blue-
printed a plant to be constructed wholly from home resources. In
six months the project was finished and producing ahead of available
machining facilities. The job entailed the making of castings larger
than any ever undertaken by the local steel industry. Iscor engineers
were faced with the problems of suiting the basic South African
steel to use as gun barrels. Previously armament factories abroad
had attempted only acid steel, but the South African product was
made possible for the purpose by an intricate "proofing" which
passed the most severe tests. Engineering shops 1,000 miles apart
were mobilised by the Government, cooperatively tooling the intri-
cate components of the howitzers.

One Transvaal company built, among other things, a bullet-
piercing and bullet-assembling machine, while another made several
lathes and produced machines of various types for foundry work.
Electrical engineering workshops designed, manufactured, tested and
despatched oil-cooled reactors for arc furnace control necessary for
the production of special steel, just five days after receiving the
inquiry. The reactors weighed nearly six tons and consisted of more
than 8,000 parts and were made without any existing drawings.

How Output Increased

Figures comparing the output of South Africa's war factories in
December, 1942, with the output in December, 1941, were given in
a report published recently by Dr. van der BijL They showed the
following increases:

Small arms ammunition output, 250% higher.

Shell bodies, S J A times as great.

Cartridge cases, twice as great.

Fuses, twice as great.

Mortar bombs, twice as great.

Grenades, 25 times as great.

Land mines, nearly three times as great.

Aerial bombs, 15 times as great.

The army clothing program consumed 15,000,000 yards of
cloth annually.

Blankets were being delivered at the rate of 2,000,000 per
annum, delivered at remarkably low cost.

'Flic Army boot and shoe program averaged monthly more than
'100,000 pai™.

Thr raeahwusijig pf ilu- South African Army called far more

! ,n 80,000 vrln. Ir , oi morr lli.in BO -IHIci nil d<-.i;-ir .. I '< whiili

Women engaged in electric welding. South African engineers designed much
of the vital plant and equipment now used in the Union's war factories.

more than 25,000 were fitted with bodies designed and built in
the Union.

Rocketing Production Targets

Other points in Dr. van der Bijl's report were:

The value of all orders so far accepted by the Union from the
Eastern Group Supply Council exceeds £25,000,000 (more than
$100,000,000). In the past three years orders placed with South
Africa's war industries, including those on behalf of British and
other Allied Governments, have exceeded £100,000,000 (more
than $400,000,000).

Research by South African engineers has resulted in vital scien-
tific equipment being made in the Union, such as gunfire control
instruments entailing optical glass grinding to an accuracy of
twelve-millionths of an inch.

Only about 15% of technical production work is undertaken by
private commercial concerns. The balance is carried out in Gov-
i-nnnni I -controlled plants or in annexes to private plants controlled
h y th fl Dfrecttw Genera] of War SuppliflSi ox by the mines and

national undertakings supplying on a net-cost basis. Work under-
taken on a commercial basis by private linns is subject to strict
price control.

Production generally has been stepped up by the entry into
industry of thousands of South African women. In the engineering
industry alone some 10,000 women provide "diluted labour/' and
their services have proved of the greatest value.

Dr. van der Fiji's report added: "Our rocketing targets of produc-
tion have called for more and more machines, and despite our
ingenuity and improvising wherever possible, Great Britain and
America have been called upon for a great many army machine tools
and cutting tools. We have received many, some of them machines
which have literally broken down bottlenecks which were hindering
production. We have been able to assure America that the machines
they send us are not standing idle — most of them are in use 24 hours
a day. Where possible machines have been made in the Union, but
much is beyond our capacity and we still look to America for her
continued assistance."

Notable Contributions by Railways

A particularly noteworthy contribution to South Africa's war
effort has been made by the South African Railways & Harbours,
This organisation is State-controlled and is the largest single organi-
sation in the country employing more than 130,000 men and women,
including technicians and experts in almost every branch of indus-
trial science. At the outbreak of war the railways had more than
20 workshops equipped and staffed on a scale and for a range of
manufacture not found anywhere else in South Africa under single
control. Moreover, the Railways & Harbours Administration had at
its disposal a nation-wide transportation and communication service,
one of the most vital factors in war. Out of a total of 70,000 white
employees the Railways & Harbours contributed more than 10,000
men to the Union's fighting services.

But the Administration's greatest contribution to the Union's war
effort came through its workshops. The mechanical workshops of
the railways became the nucleus of the Union's munitions indus-
try. These workshops were unhesitatingly put at the disposal of the
War Supplies Directorate for this purpose, only absolutely essential
needs of the service being maintained. One of the largest and busiest
establishments allocated 80 per cent of its working time to muni-
tions. The eight-hour day stretched into a iwelve-hour day in practi-
cally all shops engaged in tun nil urns produe&iGIl, En one workshop
alone mure lh;m 100 different hems of war were produced. One

dcpni i nl uui armoured oara in Itrgo number^ another welded

j p»ciirriei and gonota] iwviofl bodioi tawthai produced peal

airplane hangars, and wireless masts for military purposes. At the
other end of the scale the workshops produced instruments so deli-
cate that they had to be machined to an accuracy of one one-thou-
sandth of an inch, and a gun director for artillery the size of a small
camera containing 136 parts, all hand-made.

Between these extremes of size and delicacy the railway workshops
produced many hundreds of items required by the Army in metal,
wood, leather, canvas, and plastic — electric generators complete with
switch gear for field hospitals, gun sights, bombs, shell boxes, mor-
tars—even assegais (for Native sentries) and floating targets.

Once when a big contingent of men was being equipped for urgent
despatch to the north, railway body-builders worked for 36 hours at
a stretch converting 52 van bodies to ambulance use. As a matter of
ordinary daily routine this workshop turned out 25 troop-carrier
bodies.

In spite of this wartime activity normal railway requirements have
been reasonably well maintained. During the year ended March 31st,
1942, a record total of 147,285,552 passenger journeys were com-
pleted by the Union's railways. Railway revenue from normal sources
also reached a new peak, the previous record figure of £43,707,539
($175,922,854) for 1940-41 yielding place to £48,689,121 ($195,-
963,712) in 1941-42.

The Union's harbours handled an unprecedented procession of
merchant ships and warships using the Gape Sea Route. All provi-
sioning and bunkering of this great traffic has strained the Adminis-
tration's resources to the utmost, but a full and efficient service,
including a repair service within certain limits, has been constantly
maintained.

"Q" Supplies

Railway construction and repair units have also been sent to North
Africa. Apart from the railwaymen in the fighting ranks several com-
panies of railwaymen have been engaged in vital maintenance and
construction work, repairing or constructing railway bridges, repair-
ing engines and trucks, and maintaining telegraph and pumping
stations. In sixteen months South African railwaymen in the Middle
East assembled 50,000 vehicles of more than 100 different types and
sizes, and railway technicians are building and working railways,
operating docks, repairing tanks, constructing railway telegraph sys-
tems, and assembling motor vehicles.

On the "Q" Supplies side South Africa has within her limitations
made an equally significant contribution to the Allies' war effort.
An army repenting ten per cent of the population, clothed, shod,
and equipped from head to fool bears testimony to llm resource! ul-
hchs uf I he eon ill i yY, yrmiitf bool and lexhle indnMi ies, 'I'll is achieve-

merit involved the organisation and coordination of these industries
for mass production, systemic allocation of orders, long-range policies
in the acquisition of large supplies of cloth and other raw materials,
conservation of domestic supplies, elimination of inferior material
and rigid price control. Production in these lines is so well developed
today that the output capacity far exceeds both the country's mili-
tary and civil needs, and huge orders for boots and blankets are
being filled on behalf of Great Britain and other Allied Nations. An
army boot was produced, comfortable, pliable, and waterproof, totally
different from the old type of black ammunition boot, Figures offi-
cially quoted in November, 1942, showed that the South African
boot industry had already delivered three and a half million pairs to
South African and Allied armies and that orders for seven million
pairs of army boots were in hand. The boots are in two colours —
tan for the Springboks and black for the Imperial Forces,

A leather research institute has been opened at Grahamstown, in
the Cape Province, its investigations covering all problems ranging
from raw materials to the finished products, as well as industrial,
economic and labour management problems. During 1942 more than
700 industrial inquiries were handled by the institute which prod need
some 50 publications and reports. Several entirely new industrial
products have been developed, thanks to the acti vities of this ins titute.

Feeding the Army

South Africa had a number of efficient clothing factories when
war broke out and factory production was organised to produce
every type of uniform and textile equipment. Here also South Africa
revealed unexpected resources. There were, for example, no reserve
stocks of blankets in 1939, but within two years South Africa was
not only meeting her own army requirements but had sent a quarter
of a million blankets to fill overseas orders and had other big over-
seas orders in hand.

Restrictions on imports of clothing have given a great impetus to
the Union's clothing factories. The Union is meeting its civilian as
well as its army needs. Today some 20,000 employees of the industry
are manufacturing the latest styles in men's and women's clothing,
in addition to fulfilling large army orders. In Johannesburg and its
environs alone there are 55 women's dress factories and more than
100 factories for men's clothing mainly built up within the last decade.

The despatch of large expeditionary forces to East Africa and
later to the Middle East created new feeding problems as the bulk
of the food required had to be canned. Al ihr miilnvak of war Smith
Africa's canning industry vv;i ;i ni.ifl our, eOUCQIttnittog chiefly oil
jmnw and [VuiK Hul within IWOlVfl nionllis pmdurlimi was hcMol

and the range oi Ebodi tufl i canned extended oul all peoognil

By 1941 the Union was not only meeting its own full requirements
in army canned meat and vegetable rations but was also filling big
orders for her allies.

Besides feeding the army units based in the Union itself, whose
demands are now 50 times greater than in the early months of the
war, South Africa's food industry during 1942 supplied about 500
tons of canned meat and vegetable rations per month and large
quantities of jam preserves and other foodstuffs to the South African
troops in North Africa. Numerous convoys touching at South African
ports are supplied with foodstuffs and South Africa's commitments in
this respect also include the feeding of nearly 70,000 prisoners of
war and also thousands of evacuees, mainly from the Middle East
and Far East, who have found their way into the Union. These food
supply commitments have called for State action and the Union
Government has created a Food Control Organisation whose task
has been to stimulate and assist food production. Farmers have
cooperated fully and their efforts, coordinated with the activities of
the Food Control Organisation, have raised South Africa's food
production higher than was ever thought possible before the war.

Successful experiments have been made with the dehydration of
meat and vegetables and, though this enterprise is still in its infancy,
it is expected to have an important bearing on the volume of South
Africa's food shipments to the Middle East and elsewhere.

South Africa claims to have one of the best-fed armies in the
world. Dieticians have collaborated with army chefs and factory
experts in the production of a balanced diet. A wide range of canned
food is being produced — canned fish, canned crawfish, canned meat
and vegetable rations, canned sausages, canned orange concentrates,
and canned fruits, all providing wholesome changes from the old-
fashioned diet of bully beef and ct hard tack." Apart from meeting
current military requirements, the industry is following a long-range
policy of reserve stocks for export and is canning up to maximum
capacity during the short but prolific fruit and vegetable season.

South Africa produces annually one of the world's largest crops
of maize (corn) and normally exports a big percentage of its crop.
Maize is now one of the staple items in the Union's food resources
and is used to eke out the country's wheat supply which normally
is not quite large enough to meet South Africa's consumption require-
ments. A standard war loaf is being baked and highly nutritious type
of biscuit mass-produced for army requirements. South Africa fills
her own requirements in dairy products and has found it possible
from time to time to make food shipments also to Britain. The Union
is one of the world's principal producers of sugar cane and also fills
a substantial portion of Great Britain's wants in this regard. Before
the war South Africa was shipping to Britain annually some five
million tray* pf deciduous fruits and five million cases of oranges

and grapefruit. War shipping difficulties have put an end to this
lucrative export trade, now largely confined to shipments of oranges
for consumption by young children in England's war-scarred cities
Hut the fruit farmers have met the position squarely and a good deal
of their products are being canned and preserved, while large supplies
are diverted to provisioning the British and Allied convoys touching

at South Africa's ports. ,

In making this big wartime industrial effort, South Africa has had
a most stimulating response from its industrial workers both trained
and untrained. On the administrative side Dr. van der Bijl is assisted
bv a panel of experts representing the best organised brains in all
spheres of the Union's industrial life. Out of this panel a number
of advisory committees have been formed to deal with such matters
as munitions, machine tools, textiles, boots, etc. The workers them-
selves are adequately represented on these panels the four largest
trade unions being permanently represented on the Director-Oen-
eral's staff.

Training Technicians

Even with the most cordial support and cooperation of the workers
it was clear from the outset that there would be a big shortage oi
skilled labour, and to remedy this a Central Organisation for lech-
nical Training (known in South Africa as the C.O.T.T. scheme) was
called into being. This scheme has taken a significant place m boutn
Africa's industrial economy and is a departure in industrial training
which should give equally satisfactory results in peacetime. Under
this scheme thousands of young men from the remote country dis-
tricts, as well as the towns, are trained in semi-skilled work. Ihey
are given an intensive training to take their place m the army on
the home front and at the same time they are equipped with a trade
at which they will be able to work when peace conditions return.

The trainees are placed on a wage scale with additional allowances
for families and are given free medical and dental attention. In this
way South Africa is building np a big reservoir of high-class opera-
tives who, in the post-war period, will be able to take their places in
the country's expanding industrial and agricultural interests Every
six months some 3,000 men ranging from 18 to 45-but mostly boys
—receive an intensive course of technical training, and every*year
since the inauguration of the scheme South Africa's industry has

been enriched Ivy at leas) 0,000 led -inns all capable ol speeding

,,„ progress in I he war, nil IV 1 from the togBy of onrmploymrnl

ai , a ,„ vl ,. lv . E V6r y rooruil lo this ■■nor,., „r basic training under-
, tl BBjvo ii. riih.-ra mtftarj totflxniofil Unit or in war prodtic

* ,„ .i |„ ,„„! „l I, mo fvm w t ihimlmo mI Um- . nlH. li

the duration of the war.
Planning Ahead

by Act of Parliament m ^,1940 J he ^ $20 , 000 ,000),
corporation with a share capital of ^W^W* ' otion

sound footing » plastic b-V «™£ « ^ ***J ^tile
engineering industry, a paper industry, and a cotton

industry. fl lid planning

SSSiaSSsLisasis

was called into being with very extensive terms of ^ence

"We have now reached a stage,' said General Smuts at toe r
augural meeting of the Council on June come
to think out and work out plans for the future tne
to plan and to think out our projects, so far as it i J
possible, to survey future development, to see what
fitted for, and to take the wisest steps possible with a view

i40,00U,UUtJ Uougniy b- , , ending March

year £2,000,000 (roughly $8,000 000). loi tn y „ £96 00 0 000
fUsl, 1043, I be Union's estimated defence expendituie ,s iJO.UWA
(r,»u'gb!y $385,000,000).

PART III

This is South Africa:
its people, its history,
its politics

Many people overseas think of South Africa as a "dark" portion
of the "Dark Continent" and as a hot, semi-barharic country enjoying
few of the amenities of modern, civilised life. In fact, the Union of
South Africa and the United States of America have many similarities
and much in common. South Africa's larger cities, Johannesburg,
Cape Town and Durban, are very like American cities. These and
other cities and towns are fine, modern places enjoying all those
public services, cultural and social amenities and economic advan-
tages which are part and parcel of life in American cities. The indus-
trialisation of the Union, as the preceding pages have shown, has
made noteworthy progress. The country has an extensive and highly
developed railway transport system and had embarked on civil avia-
tion on a large scale in the years preceding the war. It is also a great
motoring country and the largest overseas buyer of American auto-
mobiles, two of America's largest automobile companies having
assembly plants in South Africa. The educational standard of South
Africa's white population, whether city or country residents, is a
very high one and South Africans take a lively interest in world
affairs. A large number of newspapers are published throughout the
country, in English and Afrikaans, the big national dailies carrying
a survey of world news comparable to the best services in British
and American newspapers.

In the matter of climate, the Union of South Africa acknowledges
no rivals. The whole area of the Union— 472,000 square miles, about
the same area as the Middle West States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,
Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, plus the State of Kansas-
falls within the South temperate zone. It is a sunny land, consistently
mild in climate, seldom experiencing extremes of heat and cold
though there is a regular winter snowfall in parts of the country.
Most of the country is high-lying, rising in a series of plateaux,
ringed by great mountain chains, until at Johannesburg, the heart
of llie gnldlirl^ in lilt* Transvaal province, a huif-hl of 6,000 feel is
reached— an exhilarating alnmspherr lhal |>aillv neeminls for L.he

"pep" with which South Africans tackle their national undertakings.
Scenically, also, South Africa acknowledges few rivals and is one of
the world's leading tourist countries. Its native (aboriginal) life has
fascinated American visitors no less than its wild life. Game preserva-
tion is a matter of national policy; there are game reserves all over
the country, the Kruger National Park (in the Northern Transvaal)
being the largest wild life sanctuary in the world.

Largest White Community in Africa

Though it knew no white settlement until the latter half of the
Seventeenth Century the Union with its 2,230,000 whites today
holds the largest settled white community on the whole of the
African Continent which before the war counted in all roughly
4,000,000 whites and 150,000,000 non-European inhabitants. In re-
cent years the Union's influence has been strongly felt in the South-
ern African sub-continent, not only among the British colonies
which are her neighbours but also in Portuguese, Belgian and French
territory, and the Union has more and more come to play a leading
role in the problems and the interests common to all these countries.
A pan-African transport conference was held in Pretoria not long
before the outbreak of war. Postal communications have been
simplified by inter-state conferences. The Union has met frequent
requests from neighbouring Governments for the services and advice
of its professional officers. Veterinary officers have been sent north-
wards to collaborate in checking stock diseases. Many friendly visits
have been exchanged by public figures and the will to cooperate and
solve common problems demonstrated again and again. As General
Smuts said at an earlier stage of the war: "Now is the time for us to
readjust our outlook on African affairs and to develop a new concep-
tion of our relations with our neighbours. We must demonstrate
and bring home to all where our community of interests lies. We
cannot stand aloof, we of this richly endowed South Africa. If we
wish to take our rightful place as leader in pan-African development
and in the shaping of future policies and events in this vast conti-
nent we must face the realities and facts of the present and seize the
opportunities which these offer."

This African viewpoint involves no question of African imperialism
nor does it affect in any way the several sovereignties or European
loyalties or relationships of the various communities in Southern
Africa. It means a broadening of the basis of cooperation between
these states and here the Union of South Africa, as the largest and
most strongly established Kunmrjm rcmimunitv hi I he snlt-rmi I merit,
is faking the lead. The rlespa h-h of scores of lliniisands qf Springboks
to Easj and Nor! Ii Africa rnnwl fowler these relationships fifld innmw-

Burably widen 1 1 1 < * Union *b own horizons in rutl d outlool

SUUIHLKN KHUUfcbIA

• Waives Bay

BEGHUANALAND

PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA

SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

TRANSVAAL

• Pretoria
•Johannesburg

• Loraco Marquez

SWAZILAND

ORANGE FREE STATE
Blaemfontein

NATAL

BASUMAND »P

The Union of South Africa, founded in 1910, comprises four Provinces: The
Transvaal and Orange Free State (former republics), the Cape and Natal.

Two White Races

A word more about the people of South Africa. The (approxi-
mately) -2,230,000 whites are roughly 60 per cent of Dutch and
French Huguenot descent and roughly 40 per cent of British descent.
South Africans, generally speaking, do not think of themselves today
as heing Dutch or British — though each section is equally proud of
its ancestry- — but call themselves South Africans and are "nationals"
of the Union of South Africa.

South Africa has two official languages, English and Afrikaans,
and these are used side by side in public and private life with com-
plete impartiality, most South Africans, in fact, being bilingual.
Afrikaans is a modification of the Dutch language. It is one of the
youngest offshoots of the language root to which the English language
itself is related and, philologically regarded, is a complete modern
language and is so recognised by such great overseas universities as
Oxford and the University of London. Afrikaans has developed a
virile literature and lias produced some outstanding writers. It figures
prominently in Lhc African programmes of the H.H.C. from London
and (litre I bfOtdCaiti in MrfkftailS from Mir United States to South

Africa arc contdmylatficL

Where a distinction is drawn between the white races in South
Africa they are usually described as c< A (Yi kaa ns-speaking" and as
''English-speaking" South Africans, The term "Afrikaner" in general
usage simply means "South African/' but limn 1 is a political usage
of the term where it is accepted as meaning a South African of Dutch
descent. South Africans of Dutch descent are not today referred to
as "Boers" in the sense the term was used during the Anglo-Boer
War of 1899-1902. "Boer" simply means farmer and an English-
speaking South African farmer may claim with as much justice to
being a "boer" as his Afrikaans -speaking neighbour.

Population Figures

A white person in South Africa is a "European" and a Bantu, an
Asiatic, a Malay, or any other person of colour is a "non-European."
South Africans talk of "Natives" when they mean the Blacks and the
term "Native" has a well-recognised legal usage in South Africa.
There is a Minister of Native Affairs, a Native Affairs Department, a
Natives' Representative Council, and so on. The Natives belong to
the great Bantu race and in official and everyday usage the terms
"Bantu" and "Native" are customarily regarded as interchangeable.

The Bantu far outnumber the whites in South Africa, the latest
estimated figure, in 1941, placing their number at 7,377,000. The
Coloureds (persons of mixed blood) number 845,000, and the Asiat-
ics, mainly Indians settled in the Province of Natal and the Province
of the Transvaal, 278,000.

Historical Background

South Africa's decision to enter the war was not a unanimous
one, but was taken on a majority vote in the Union Parliament. The
Opposition in the Union Parliament is isolationist in sentiment and
opposed to the country's participation in the war. To explain the
political situation in South Africa today it is necessary to give some
of the historical background to the events leading up to a change
of Government on September 4, 1939, and the formation of a Govern-
ment under General Jan Christiaan Smuts pledged to wage war
against Germany and to defend South Africa against aggression.

In many respects present problems in South Africa can be£t be
explained in terms of history. The first European settlers at the
Cape were the Dutch — former officials of ihe one-lhne powerful
Dutch East India Company, who had hern prnnilled io lake I heir
discharge and In srllle beyond I hi- nuilim** o| ihr Iml :unl "n-livli
mm! Hlutinn" which 1 1n* Ihileh had eitftMilhrd -'l Mm 1 Cape in U>ML
A fanner cimmuinik qj Nuhli .mIm gTtdUftUy BlfidC thoiX WIJ!

Johannesburg, "Golden City" of the Transvaal, is little more than 50 years
old. It has an exhilarating climate and a skyline like that of New York.

inland, and for nearly a century and a half the Dutch, strengthened
by a strong influx of French Huguenots, lived in South Africa a life
untrammelled by the attentions of the Dutch East India Company
or any other authority. They lived rugged, independent lives, were
intensely freedom-loving and individualistic, intolerant of interfer-
ence, and guided their lives by the precepts of the Bible.

In 1795, through circumstances not unlike those which obtain in
Europe today, the British occupied the Cape for strategical reasons.
A second and permanent occupation took place in 1806, when the
British took over the administration of the Cape more or less as
successors in title to the Dutch East India Company, which had by
this time declined both in power and prestige.

The 1820 Settlers

The year 1820 saw the arrival of the first British settlers— an
event which has the same meaning for South Africans of British
descent as the voyage of the Mayflower has for the descendants of
the, American pioneers. The "1820 Settlers" shared the same pioneer-
1MJ , hardships with the Diileh frontiersmen and lo^elher for more

than half a century they faced and fought, hostile tribes who were
continually ravaging the frontier farms and villages of the Eastern Cape.

The Dutch and the English became par tuns in the European
colonisation of southernmost Africa, sharing in the task of opening
up the interior and destined to participate eventually in a common
South African nationhood. The British, as one South African his-
torian expressed it, "came as a distinct element. Their political
domination, as well as their sharply defined national characteristics,
prevented their absorption into the growing South African nation,
as the French and Germans had been absorbed. It was just as un-
natural that they on their part should absorb the Dutch element in
the population which was the stronger numerically, and had just as
sharply defined national characteristics as their own. The Dutch and
the British were to find out that they had many a bond of union,
many a common sentiment and tradition that might serve as a basis
of cooperation and friendship, But they were to find also how strong
was the individuality which each of the two elements inherited from
the past, and to learn that it was only on the basis of equality of
status and equality of esteem that their comprehension in a greater
whole could be effected. But this lesson only long and hitter expe-
rience could teach South Africa."

The Great Trek

On the eastern frontier of the Cape, facing the huge and almost
unexplored territory inhabited by the Bantu (Native) races, the rela-
tionships between the Dutch farmers and the British settlers were
consistently friendly, and it did not take long before the newcomers
found themselves in accord with the Dutch pioneers on most of the
issues that affected them as a European community in a semi-
barbaric country.

Yet, though the foundations were even then being laid for the
South African nation of Afrikaans- and English-speaking peoples of
the future, the coming of the British settlers provided the occasion
for a change in Government policy which, for various reasons that
need not be entered into here, caused great discontent among the
Dutch farmers. This discontent came to a head in 1836, when there
took place a mass migration of Dutch farmers to the north. This was
the epic of the Great Trek — a dramatic chapter in South African
history destined to have a profound influence on relationships. be-
tween English and Dutch for more than 100 years. In fad, tin-
shadow of the Greak Trek, in many ways comparable to A me rim's
"covered wagon" epic, and all that it implied, the expression of the
freedom-loving ehanieler of the Afrikaner and Ins desire hi cm id m I

his own affairs wit] t interference, in Home respeetH still falls

across ihc Sun I li African Mem* hid.iv

South Africa's "White House" is the home of Premiers. American sailors
visit Groote Schuur, Field Marshal Smuts's official residence in Cape Town.

The Two Republics

The middle of the 19th century saw the foundation of the inde-
pendent Boer Republics, the Republic of the Orange Free State and
the Transvaal Republic, the latter more commonly known as the
South African Republic. For the ensuing 40 years the relationships
between these two Republics and their neighbours, the Cape Colony
and the Colony of Natal, were a chequered pattern. In many respects
the relationships between the English and the Dutch were com-
pletely friendly, and repeated attempts to bring about a federation of
the four States met with a large measure of sympathy from the
citizens of the Republics. But there were also irreconcilable points
of difference, notably after the discovery of gold on the Witwaters-
rand in 1884, which brought a large influx of strangers into the
Transvaal. These differences culminated in the Anglo-Boer War of
1899-1902, in which the two Republics, after a stubborn fight which
won the admiration of the world, lost their independence.

This war lefl a legacy of bitterness, based on memories of suffering
and fogs, which wm deeply fraught with future evil for South Africa,
llui ilir war ;il<;<> hid ;t < mill side. In many respects the Dutch and

the English "discovered" each other; they had learned to appreciate
each other as doughty and chivalrous opponents, In some ways this
South African war of 1899-1902 may be regarded as the last of the
"gentlemen's wars," for while it brought in its train all the misery
attendant on war, it also saw the performance of many extraordinary
acts of courtesy and chivalry, and the foundations were laid of mutual
respect and appreciation — solid foundations on which Dutch and
English have since almost succeeded in completing the edifice of a
united South Africa. One of the results of the war was the discovery
by the Dutch people of itself as a race. Dutch nationalism, or Afri-
kaner nationalism as it is known today, was given direction and
purpose, and the Afrikaans language, today fully accepted as a
modern language, underwent a phenomenal development.

A Venture of Faith

The Peace Treaty which ended the war between Boer and Briton
was signed at Vereeniging (which, appropriately, means "coming
together") a small town on the Transvaal— Free State border, on
May 31st, 1902. Soon there opened one of the most remarkable
chapters in the history of the unification of South Africa. Those
doughty Republican leaders, General Louis Botha and General Jan
Christiaan Smuts, threw their great influence on the side of conciliat-
ing the two white races in South Africa and securing for the defeated
Republicans the fullest say in the administration of their countries.
They met a more than sympathetic response from England where a
new Liberal Government under Campbell-Bannerman had come into
power. Within five years of the signing of the Peace of Vereeniging
the Transvaal and the Free State were granted responsible govern-
ment and were ruled as British colonies by the defeated leaders who
had signed that peace. "The Campbell-Bannerman Government," says
a South African historian, "had embarked upon a magnificent venture
of faith, and out of that faith the attainment of the Union of South
Africa was one of the first fruits."

Union was achieved within eight years. In 1910 the two former
Republics and the two British colonies, the Cape and Natal, were
welded together into the Union of South Africa and the field was
open for the development of South Africanism in the broader sense.
There were many problems still to be overcome and new problems
soon presented themselves. After 1912 Dutch nationalism devc^ped
strongly under the leadership of General J. B. M. Hertzog, founder
and leader of the Nationalist Party, This grew from strength to
strength in Parliament in opposition to ihr South African I'arty,
which governed the country, lirsi under flic i Vemtership of General

Louis Botha, and afh-r M>M> (uubr Hun of Genera] Smuti* lii L924
the NattontUfi Ptrty, with the help >>i South Africa*! imaU Lai

Field Marshal Smuts inspects a guard of honour of the South African Women's
Auxiliary Army Services, popularly known in the Union as the "Waasies.'

Party, proved strong enough to take over the reins of Government,
and from then until 1932 the Nationalists were in power, with
General Smuts and his South African Party in opposition.

South Africa's politics are fairly strong meat and are pursued
with an intensity of feeling and outspokenness which often creates
a false impression overseas. The political division in South Africa
then, as it is now, was by no means a racial one. Hertzog counted
on the support of the English-speaking Labourites. Smuts, it is true,
had the support of the majority of English-speaking people, but then
he also had the wholehearted support of a great body of Afrikaans-
speaking voters. Today, even more than at any other stage of his
political career, General Smuts can claim loyalty and support from
both the Afrikaans- and the English-speaking people.

Political Parties

For many years the differences between General Hertzog and
General Smuts dominated the South African political scene- But
in 1932 when, following the prolonged depression, the state ol the
(•nuntry demanded the formation of a eoalilion government, H

appeared that these differences were not irreconcilable. It was con-
sidered probable that, if an appeal had been made to the country,
General Smuts would have secured a working majority in Parlia-
ment. He chose, however, a course which in a large measure gave
South Africa a rest from the party political squabbles of the past.
He made common cause with General Hertz og in a new Party, the
combination of the old South African Party and the Nationalist
Party into a new United Party with General Hertzog as Premier and
General Smuts as Deputy Premier.

The United Party provided South Africa with the strongest admin-
istration it had ever had in its history, the Government numbering
115 supporters in the House of 153 members. General Hertzog's
supporters did not all follow him into the United Party, but, under
the leadership of Dr. D. F. Malan, some 25 members of the old
Nationalist Party preferred to go into Opposition, retaining the title
of the Nationalist Party, On the other hand, there were some
English-speaking members of General Smuts's old Party who would
not participate in the United Party Government and formed a small
English-speaking Opposition under the title of the Dominion Party,
led by Colonel C. F. Stallard.

Neutrality Issue

In general terms, the United Party represented the ideal of a
South African nationhood based on complete equality in all respects
of the English- and Afrikaans -speaking sections in the Union. The
Nationalist Party represented the Republican and isolationist ideal,
while the Dominion Party gave expression to a fairly vocal Imperial-
ist sentiment in South Africa,

When they joined forces in the interests of a United South Africa,
General Smuts and General Hertzog agreed on all points with one
notable exception — the question of neutrality, the issue whether
Britain's participation in a war also meant South Africa's participa-
tion in that war. General Hertzog's attitude was that, as a sovereign
independent state, South Africa was not necessarily obliged to go
to war if Britain went to war. General Smuts held the view that if
Great Britain were involved in war, and her existence and future
were at stake, then South Africa herself was in danger and could not
remain neutral.

The two Generals, in the interests of political amity and coopera-
tion, agreed to differ on this point, but the issue demanded ur-yni
settlement when World War No. 2 lirukr qui on Septenjber 8rd|
1939. Parliament was in session ai the time, General Serteog Intro-
duced a motion in favour <»l a polio) of bOAfevolonl aeutralit) cor
Souih Afi ir;L This \m\ b rejected bj BO votoi i" 67 and Hi<- Bouifl of

As .rmUy by tlir miiiic nuii'f* I voh'M adopted th« aim ndm. ot

The statue of Jan Yan Riebeeck, first Dutch iGovernorof the <^<«>£J
across the city of Cape Town at Table Mountain and its cloth of cloud.

introduced by General Smuts that the Union sever relations > with
Germany. General Hertzog's resignation as Premier followed and
GeneralWs, as leader of the United Party, formed a new Govern-
ment, Colonel C. F. Stallard, leader of the Dominion Party, and
Mr Walter B. Madeley, leader of the Labour Party (respectively
represented in the House by nine and by five members) being in-
cluded in the new Cabinet. General Smuts's working majority in
Parliament subsequently increased to about 20, normally regarded
as a comfortable working majority, while his supporters claim that
he has a very much more solid backing in the country, from both
the Afrikaans- and the English-speaking electorate, than is reflected
bv the strength of the Parties in Parliament.

The Opposition eventually found itself split into three factions
General Hertzog retired from the political scene after some months,
and his death took place in November, 1942. Dr. Dame Francois
Malan is leader of the chief opposition 8-p the Reumted Nation^
ist Party, which counts 39 members in the House. Mr Oswald
1' row who was South Africa's Minister of Defence before the change
, G^emmenl in September, 1939, leads a "New Order Group of
, „!,,-*. „„.l is.,„ AMku.mr Parly «roupol

whose leader, Mr. Nicolaas Havenga, former Minister of Finance,
is no longer in Parliament.

These groups make common cause in their opposition to South
Africa's participation in the war, but the Afrikaner Party has repeat-
edly supported the Government on other issues. Parliamentary
opposition leaders have from time to time declared themselves
Sternly opposed to anything smacking of unconstitutional practice
and have reprobated acts of sabotage in South Africa believed to
have been engineered by enemy agents.

The Government

In terms of the South Africa Act of 1909 (embodying the Union's
institution) Pretoria is the seat of Government and Gape Town
lh<- si-al of the Legislature of the Union. This practically established
;i Mvs tern of two capitals, though the Act does not describe either
city under that term. Under this arrangement the headquarters of
the various departments of State with their staffs are placed in
Pretoria while the Houses of Parliament and the Parliamentary
establishment are situated in Cape Town. In everyday practice
South Africans speak of Pretoria as the "administrative capital" and
of Cape Town as the "legislative capital." The two cities are about a
thousand miles apart.

The Union Parliament is the sovereign legislative power in and
over the Union to the exclusion of all Acts of the British Parliament
passed- after 1931. Parliament consists of the King (represented by
a Governor-General), the Senate, and the House of Assembly. Since
April, 1937, a South African, Sir Patrick Duncan, has been Governor-
General of South Africa.

The Senate, which functions mainly as a House of Review, with
no power to veto or amend certain monetary Bills passed by the
Assembly, consists of 44 members, partly nominated and partly
elected. Eight Senators are specially charged with the interests of
the non-white population.

The House of Assembly, consisting of 153 members, is an elected
body and its members are referred to as M.P.'s (Members of
Parliament). Three M.P.'s are elected by Bantu (Native) voters
in the Cape Province whose names are listed separately from the
white voters' roll. Only whites may be elected to the Senate or
the Assembly.

The Natives Representative Council, of which Natives are mem-
bers, considers and reports upon any proposed legislation which may
affect the Bantu population and reronuncrnls any Seftislalioil which
il rmisidrrs necessary the interests ul ihe lluritu peoples, Tfaftfe

is also other machinery foa Bflfeguardlng and pi omoting tho Into) i I

of ihe linrihi race

The Union consists of four Provinces, the Cape, the Transvaal,
N;ii:iL ;uid the Orange Free State. Each has an Administrator and a
Provincial Council with limited legislative functions.

Ministers of State

Following is a list of South African Ministers of State:
Pmmk Minister ] [Field Marshal the Rt. Hon.

Minister of External Affairs > j J- C. Smuts, P.O., C.H.,

Minister of Defence J I K.C., D.T.D., M.P.

MiNtsTKK of Finance \ The Ron j H Hofmeyr, M.P.

M i m s r e t i o f Education J

M iinister of Commerce and Industries . The Hon. S. F. Waterson, M.P.

Minister of Agriculture! /CoL-Comdt. the Hon. W. R. Collins,
and Forestry J ' ' * I D.T.D.. D AO., M.P.

Minister of the Interior U H<m R G _ Uwcnce K .C., M.P.
Minister of Public Health . J

Minister of Railways & Harbours . . .The Hon. F. C. Sturrock, M.P.

Minister of Posts and 1

Telegraphs f Senator the Hon. C. F. Clarkson

Minister of Public Works]

Minister of Labour \ The Hon< W< g Madeley, M.P.

Minister of Social Welfare]

(Col. the Hon. C. F. Stallard, K.C.,
Minister of Mines \ D.S.O., M.C., M.P.

Minister of Lands Senator the Hon. A. M. Conroy

Minister of Justice . .Or. the Hon. C. F. Steyn, K.C., M.P.

fMaL the Hon. P.V.G. van der Byl,
Minister of Native Affairs. M q ^ jj p

South West Africa

The Union Government is the Mandatory authority over South
West Africa, the former German colony which surrendered to South
African troops in July, 1915.

Representation in the U.S.A.

South Africa maintains a Legation in Washingion, 1>. C. (al 31 M
Massachusetts Avenue) and haa been repreitlited here Si&cs &nu*

ary, 1934, by the Hon. Ralph William Close, K.C, Envoy Extraor-
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. Then 1 is a South African
Consulate at No. 500 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

South African Government Supply Mission

In order to ensure that the much-needed supplies from North
America shall reach South Africa, the Government maintains a
Mission in Washington, which maintains close relations with the
many Government war agencies of the United States of America.
This Mission is charged with the duty of procurement of goods
[required for the successful prosecution of the war and the mainte-
nance of South Africa on a wartime basis, either through the medium
of lend-lease in appropriate cases or for cash. *

Cnnimrreial channels continue to be utilised over a wide field
and in this respect the Mission assists American exporters in obtain-
tag the necessary priority ratings for manufacture and export licences.
Tin: shipment of goods to South Africa from United States ports is
controlled by the Mission in collaboration with the War Shipping
Administration through a system of ratings based upon the essen-
tiality and priority of the cargo as assessed by the South African
Government.

Purchases on behalf of the Government are also made by the
Mission in Canada through the happy collaboration of the Canadian
Department of Munitions and Supply, whilst commercial purchases
from the same source are assisted by the Accredited Representative
for South Africa in Ottawa, who also controls shipments from
Canadian ports.

The Headquarters of the Mission are at 907 15th Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C, and the telegraphic address is Sapurcom.

H. M. MOOLMAN

3101 Massachusetts Ave.,
Washington, D. C.

4

The Springbok

The

UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA