DLAMONDS,GOLD,AND BRITISHIMPERLALISM
problem caused passionate debates in the convention. Some Cape dele-
gates, who had black as well as white constituents, proposed a uniform
franchise on the Cape colonial model, but the other three delegations
remained adamantly opposed to that proposal. The outcome was a com-
promise: membership in parliament was confined to white men, and the
franchise laws of each colony remained in force in each province, but, to
protect the rights of Blacks in the Cape province, any bill altering those
laws would require the support of two-thirds of both houses of parliament
in a joint sitting.
Third, the constitution provided that at regular intervals judicial com-
missions were to divide the country into electoral divisions for the lower
house ofparliament and that each division was to contain the same number
of voters, although the commissions could vary that number 15 percent
either way from the average to take into account several factors, including
"sparsity or density of population." In practice, delimitation commissions
would attach great weight to that factor, to the advantage of parties that
represented rural voters. It would be crucial in 1948, when it enabled D. F.
Malan's National party to form a government and institute its policy' of