Part 4 (1/2)

When the session closed in July,--it is then ainst it The Nationalist ed his official life and political fortunes The probleainst a repetition of the trial and uncertainty which he had undergone

Fate in the shape of the Nationalist Party played into his hands Under the stiress was called at Bloenfontein late last Septe and Tielman Roos, the co-leader of the secessionists, believed that by bringing the leading representatives of the two leading parties together the appeal to racial pride ht carry the day smuts did not attend but variousbut reunite The differences on the republican issues being fundamental were likewise irreconcilable The Nationalists stood pat on secession while the South African Party re ended in a deadlock

smuts, a field marshal of politics, at once saw that the hour of deliverance from his dilemma had arrived The Nationalists had declared themselves unalterably for separation He converted their battle-cry into coin for himself He seized the moment to issue a call for a new Moderate Party that would represent a fusion of the South Africanists and the Unionists In one of his finest documents he made a plea for the consolidation of these constructive elements

In it he said:

Now that the Nationalist Party is fir the fires of secession and of driving the European races apart from each other and ultimately into conflict with each other, the moderate elements of our population have no other alternative but to draw closer to one another in order to fight that policy

A new appeal ht-minded South Africans, irrespective of party or race, to join the new Party, which will be strong enough to safeguard the perainst the disruptive and destructive policy of the Nationalists Such a central political party will not only continue our great work of the past, but is destined to play a weighty role in the future peaceable development of South Africa

The end of October witnessed the ratification of this proposal by the Unionists The action at once consolidated the Premier's position I doubt if in all political history you can uncover a series of eventsor find a solution arrived at with greater skill and strategy It was a revelation of smuts with his ripe states

At the election held four months later smuts scored a brilliant triumph

The South African Party increased its representation by eighteen seats, while the Nationalists lost heavily The Labour Party was ale The net result was that the Preuarantees a stable and loyal Government for at least five years

It only remains to speculate on what the future holds for this reic habit of pre men Rhodes was broken on the wheel at forty-nine, and Botha succumbed in the prime of life Will smuts share the same fate?

No one need be told in the face of the smuts performance that he is a world asset The question is, how far will he go? A Cabinet Minister at twenty-eight, a General at thirty, a factor in international affairs before he ell into the forties, he unites those rare elereatness which see days That he will reconstruct South Africa there is no doubt What larger responsibilities uessed

Just before I sailed froh-placed British official He is in the councils of Empire and he knows smuts and South Africa I asked hireat ress He replied:

”The destiny of smuts is interwoven with the destiny of the whole British Eether with bonds of blood Out of this common peril and sacrifice has been knit a closer I the e had an Imperial War Cabinet coical successor will be a United British Empire, federated in policy but not in administration

smuts will be the Prime Minister of these United States of Great Britain”

It is the high goal of a high career

[Illustration: THE HEAVY LINE INDICATES MR MARCOSSON'S ROUTE IN AFRICA]

CHAPTER II--”CAPE-TO-CAIRO”

I

When you take the train for the North at Capetown you start on the first lap of what is in many respects the most picturesque journey in the world Other railways tunneldeserts, and invade the clouds, but none has so roination as this The reason is that at Capetown begins the southern end of the fareatest drealand's prince of practical dreamers, Cecil Rhodes Today, after thirty years of conflict with grudging Governments, the project is practically an accomplished fact

Woven into its fabric is the story of a German conspiracy that was as definite a cause of the Great War as the BalkanAlong its highway the Aistered a little known evidence of his achievement abroad The route taps civilization and crosses the last frontiers of progress The South African end discloses an illu example of profitable nationalization Over it still broods the personality of the man who conceived it and who left his impress and his name on an empire Attention has been directed anew to the enterprise from the fact that shortly before I reached Africa two aviators flew fro tiht hours

The unbroken iron spine that was to link North and South Africa and which Rhodes beheld in his vision of the future, will probably not be built for some years Traffic in Central Africa at the able rivers in the Belgian Congo, Egypt, and the Soudan lend themselves to the rail and water route which, with one short overland gap, now enables you to travel the whole way from Cape to Cairo

The very inception of the Cape-to-Cairo project gives you a gli out of details to subordinates When he looked at theh it fronizance of the extraordinary difficulties that lay in the way He saw, but he did not heed, the rainbow oflike reat lakes, or wild and pri Money and energy were to him merely means to an end

When General ”Chinese” Gordon, for example, told him that he had refused a rooolian bandits Rhodes looked at him in surprise and said: ”Why didn't you take it? What is the earthly use of having ideas if you haven't the money hich to carry them out?” Here you have the keynote of the whole Rhodes business policy A project had to be carried through regardless of expense It applied to the Cape-to-Cairo dream just as it applied to every other enterprise hich he was associated

The all-rail route would cost billions upon billions, although now that Gere in Africa is ended it would not be a physical and political iinal plan into a combination rail and river scheo The southern end is all-rail mainly because the Union of South Africa and Rhodesia are civilized and prosperous countries I made the entire journey by train froo, a distance of 2,700 est continuous link in the whole scheh car in about nine days