Less
Empire
and
More
Commonwealth
915
All
these
issues
combined
to
stir a reaction of
feeling
in South
Africa
that
helped
Malan
to
overthrow
Smuts
in
the
general
election
of
1948
and
led
to the
adoption
of severer
measures
to
buttress
white
suprem-
acy.
One
of
these blew
up
a
storm
that
rocked the
country
and
shook
the constitution. Malan would have abolished
the colored
vote,
which
still
survived
in the
Cape province,
20
but he
knew he could
not
get
the
constitutionally prescribed
two thirds
majority
in a
joint
session
of the
two
houses.
Therefore
he
struck at the
thing
he
abhorred
by
getting
parliament
to
enact the
removal of
colored
voters from
the common
electoral
roll and
the
creation of
a
segregated
roll
for
them
to
elect
Europeans
to
represent
them.
The
appellate
division
of
the
supreme
court
threw
out
the
act
as
unconstitutional,
and
when
he retaliated
by
passing
an act
making parliament
itself the
highest
court
in the
land,
the
appellate
division
threw out
that
act
too.
Meanwhile
he
piped
a
new
tune to
beguile
the
English-speaking
opposition.
He
no
longer
maintained
that
they
were
only
British
interlopers,
not real South
Africans.
Their
consent
would be
necessary
for
the establishment
of
a
republic.
He
piped
in
vain,
and
the
weight
of four
score
years
induced
him
to
retire
in
1954.
The
new
Nationalist
leader
and
prime
minister,
J.
G.
Strijdom,
resorted
to
more
desperate
means,
which a
group
of
Nationalist
profes-
sors
denounced
in a
published
statement
and
many
Nationalist
women
fought
by picketing
their
legislators.
But
Strijdom
had
an iron
grip
on
the
party
machine,
and he
jammed
through
parliament
two
revolu-
tionary
measures
that
came into force
in
December
1955.
One
packed
the
court
that
had
defeated
Malan,
and
the other
the
Senate,
which
it
nearly
doubled
in
size.
The distribution
of
parliamentary
seats,
being
strongly
weighted
in
favor
of the
rural
constituencies,
had
given
the
Nationalists
a
legislative
majority
though
they
represented
less
than
half
the
electorate,
and
their
chief
was
determined to
use
this
advantage
ruthlessly.
Other
measures
restricted
the
freedom of
speech
and
the
press,
heightening
fears
of a
growing
totalitarianism.
The
entrenched
clauses
of
the
constitution
are now
worthless
paper,
the
English-speak-
ing
minority
are
in
a
precarious
position,
the
pressure
on
the blacks
is
more
intolerable
than
ever,
and
it
would seem
that
only
a break in
the
Nationalist
ranks or
a
softening
of
hearts
among
Nationalist leaders
can
avert
the
peril
that
lies
ahead.
During
the
war
the
other
dominion
with
dual
nationality,
Canada,
20
See
supra
p.
765,
n. 5.