tion stone of a monument to the voortrekkers on a hill outside Pretoria.
There, orators painted the voortrekkers in heroic hues, giving them the
qualities necessary to promote the nationalist cause. They were profoundly
religious. They were adamantly opposed to the mixing of the races. They
stood for Afrikaner solidarity in the face of alien Western influences.
"God," said the Reverend T. F. Dreyer, "has willed that we must be a
separate, independent people."23
Even so, the United party seemed to be in firm command of the state
apparatus. The economy was booming. The'standard of living of nearly all
white South Africanswas improving. White poverty was decreasing. In the
election of 1938 the United party won I I I seats in the House of Assembly,
Malan's Purified Nationalists won only 27, and the Dominion party won
8. But there was a cloud on the horizon. Though Smuts's supporters .had
welcomed Hertzog's insistence on making South Africa's national sov-
ereignty foolproof, they had different views as to how the government
should exercise its sovereignty after Hitler's Third Reich had absorbed
Austria, conquered Czechoslovakia, and invaded Poland. When Britain
declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, the United party split. A