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South African Historical Journal Volume 21, 1989 - Issue 1
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ARTICLES

The Soldiers' Vote and Its Effect on the Outcome of the South African General Election of 1943

F. D. TOTHILL
Pages 73-93 | Published online: 14 Jan 2009

  • Tothill , See F.D. ‘The 1943 General Election’ (unpub. M.A. dissertation, University of South Africa, 1987). This article is based on part of the dissertation
  • The power-struggle between the Ossewa-Brandwag and the Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP) was also a significant factor. This was exploited but not contrived by the government
  • There was no soldiers’ vote at the 1915 general election. However, Canada and Australia made special provision for their soldiers to vote in those countries’ First World War general elections. Until 1926 there were also no postal votes in South Africa. The Third Schedule to the Electoral Act, No. 12 of 1918, provided for registered voters on active service to appoint proxies to vote on their behalf ‘during the present war and the period of six months immediately succeeding its termination’. But the war ended before the system could come into operation at a general election
  • Supporting this proposition is that arrangements were made only for military personnel serving abroad. None were made for civilians such as diplomatic representatives, who were numerically insignificant
  • 1941 percentages based on home language. Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa and of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland, 23 (1946), chap, xxv, 10. About 4,12% of whites spoke languages other than English or Afrikaans at home. The ratio of adult English speakers to adult Afrikaners was more favourable to the former—about 54,07% to 49,53% in 1941
  • See, for example, Die Burger, 5 and 6 Sept. 1939 (editorials)
  • The Round Table 117 (Dec. 1939): 211
  • The term was due to expire on 21 July 1943 with a general election constitutionally required to be held before 21 October. Prolongation of the House's life by means of legislation would not have been a practical proposition until 1943, by which time it was unnecessary
  • Psychologically speaking, a setback in the Provincial Council elections could have been prejudicial to the government's chances in the subsequent House of Assembly election even though a new delimitation would have been operative
  • ‘Active service’ and ‘war service’ were legal concepts. The former referred to troops outside and the latter to troops inside the country. Therefore, it is incorrect to speak of soldiers who served only in the Union as having been on active service
  • See Tothill, ‘The 1943 General Election’, 285–7
  • Union of South Africa, Debates of the House of Assembly, 42, 1941, col. 7047. In deciding that soldiers would vote for parties, the South African authorities may have been influenced by the Canadian military voters acts of 1915 (5 George V, Chap. 11) and 1917 (7–8 George V, Chap. 34) and the Australian Commonwealth Electoral (Wartime) Act, No. 8 of 1917. I am indebted to Prof. Joan Rydon of La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, for drawing my attention to this. Canadian and Australian military personnel could choose between the government and the opposition or else they could write in the names of individual candidates
  • Debates of the House of Assembly 42, 1941, col. 7053. It is not uncommon today in politically less-developed countries where symbols are used to distinguish the parties
  • Ibid. col. 7048
  • Debates of the House of Assembly 46, 1943, col. 5725
  • Debates of the House of Assembly 42, 1941, col. 7046–7. But soldiers stationed in the Union did take part in by-elections by applying for postal votes in the normal way
  • Ibid. 7059
  • Ibid. 8026
  • Ibid. 7054 – 5 . HNPpress organs informed their readers before the 1943 general election that the ballot was indeed secret. Die Transvaler attributed that to the HNP's persistence in hammering the point. Die Transvaler, 23 June 1943 (editorial)
  • House of Assembly Debates 46, 1943, col. 5771. It is not clear if that was done
  • House of Assembly Debates 42, 1941, col. 7651
  • Ibid. 7655
  • Prof W.A. Kleynhans revived the idea in 1976. United Party Archives (UP Arch.), Central Head Office (CHO), Elections, General and Provincial Election 1943, Correspondence and Circulars, rough notes of an interview on 23 Mar. 1976 with Maj. W.G. Geach, co-ordinator of the arrangements for the soldiers’ vote in North Africa in 1943. See The Star, 21 June, 1943
  • To which end a conference was convened in Pretoria in August. House of Assembly Debates, 42, 1941, col. 7051;Rand Daily Mail, 19 Aug. 1941
  • UP Arch., Transvaal Provincial Head Office, Head Committee Minutes 18/11/1939–29/8/1949, Vol. 1, Meeting 28 May 1942, 4–5
  • Electoral matters are normally the exclusive responsibility of the Department of the Interior, or Home Affairs as it is called now. But Defence was intimately concerned with the drafting of the legislation because of the large numbers of soldiers involved
  • South African Defence Force Archives (SADF), AG 3 154, Holder 19, File 154/X/l41, Memorandum ‘Electoral Schemes: U.D.F.’, Pilkington Jordan-Adjudant-General, 22 June 1942
  • Rand Daily Mail 3 July 1942
  • SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 19, File 154/X/141, Notes of a meeting between the Minister of the Interior and the Adjudant-General on 11 June 1942, 3
  • UP Arch., J.M. Conradie Collection, 23, Elections, ‘Draft Bill to provide for voting by voters on Military Service stationed in the Union and by voters serving with the Royal or Union Naval Forces or in other Ships, in Union Waters at General Elections for the House of Assembly and Provincial Councils’, Sec. 7
  • SADF, AG 3154, Holder 19, File 154/X/l 41, Chief Clerk Electoral—Under Secretary, 17 July 1942. The British Empire Service League (BESL) suggested the following year that volunteers over 18 1/2 should be enfranchised. Die Burger, 8 Apr. 1943
  • SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. II, Item 10, Pilkington Jordan—US Military Attaché, 29 Sept. 1943
  • He later hyphenated his name. See House of Assembly, Parliamentary Register 1910–1961 (Cape Town, n.d), 109. He was a United Party MP from 1948 to 1958, then a Senator until 1969. D.M. Scher gives some details of his political career in ‘“P.J.”: The life and times of Senator R.D. Pilkington-Jordan’, Kleio, XX (1988): 66–79
  • See Rand Daily Mail The Natal Mercury, 29 Mar. 1943
  • House of Assembly Debates 46, 1943, col. 4187. See also Die Burger, 31 Mar. 1943
  • See The Natal Mercury, 29 Mar. 1943 (editorial)
  • House of Assembly Debates 46, 1943, col. 5612
  • See Die Transualer, 23 June 1943. With a view to applying it to their own circumstances, the Americans were interested in the South African soldiers’ vote. Early in 1944 the Military Artatché, Col. B.A. Day, was reported to have said that a Bill before the US Congress was based more on the South African system than on any other considered. Rand Daily Mail, 9 Feb. 1944
  • SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. II, Item 10, Pilkington Jordan–US Military Attaché, 29 Sept. 1943, 1
  • House of Assembly Debates 46, 1943, col. 5614
  • Ibid. col. 5721, 5724
  • Union of South Africa, Government Gazette Extraordinary, 3201 (29 May 1943), iv-ix, Government Notice 1017
  • Government Gazette 3202 (4 June 1943), 329–32, Government Notice 1043. 1043
  • Government Gazette Extraordinary 3201 (29 May 1943), vi, reg. 7(c)
  • Ibid. vii, reg. 17(2) & (3)
  • This may have been Smuts's own decision. See SADF, Aanwinste, Holder 38, Frank Theron Collection, Theron—Smuts, 15 June 1943, 1
  • SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. I, Attachment to Item 51, Cable DAGDEF UDF/ECH/1422, No. 408, 6 June 1943;Item 33, Cable DECHIEF, PRETORIA/UNIDEF, CAIRO, 8 June 1943
  • Ibid. Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. II, Item 10, Pilkington Jordan—US Military Attaché, 29 Sept. 1943, 4
  • UP Arch., CHO, Union Unity Fund, Correspondence 1940, 1943, Oosthuizen—Robertson, 11 May 1943, 2. See also CHO, Elections 1943, Miss Hamelberg—Oosthuizen, 1 June 1943 and Oosthuizen—Miss Hamelberg, 10 June 1943
  • Malan , M. P.A. 1964 . Die Nasionale Party van Suid-Afrika: Sy Stryd en Sy Prestasies 1914–1964 Kaapstad 212
  • SADF, AG 3154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. 1, Item 57, Pilkington Jordan—Chief Electoral Officer, 22 June 1943
  • Ibid. Item 68, De Wet—Blaine, 29 June 1943;Item 71, Pilkington Jordan—Blaine, 5 July 1943;Item 84, Blaine—De Wet, 9 July 1943;Holder 102, File 154/X/998, Item 2, Blaine—Adjudant-General, 22 July 1943
  • Ibid. Holder 78, File 154/X/800, vol. I, Maisels—Director-General of the Air Force, 7 July 1943, 5
  • Ibid. 4 After the war Maisels became a leader of the Johannesburg Bar, Judge of the High Court of Southern Rhodesia and Justice of Appeal for Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland. He retired as President of the Botswana Court of Appeal in December 1987 at the age of 82. See The Star, 11 Dec. 1987
  • SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. I, Item 76, Pilkington Jordan—AG(3), 6 July 1943
  • Ibid. Item 10, AG Circular No. 95, 26 May 1943, para. 3. See also The Star, 1 June 1943
  • The Star 3 July 1943
  • Sunday Times 30 May and 4 July 1943;Rand Daily Mail 1 and 25 June and 1 July 1943;The Star 25 June and 3 July 1943
  • See footnote 23 above
  • Springbok 17 June 1943
  • SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. II, Item 7, Pilkington Jordan—Theron, 9 August 1943
  • Ibid. Item 10, Pilkington Jordan—US Military Attache, 29 Sept. 1943, 3
  • See The Star, 9 July 1943 and Rlkington Jordan—US Military Attaché, 29 Sept. 1943, 3
  • Rand Daily Mail 27 July 1943
  • SAPA report in Graaff-Reinet Advertiser, 22 July 1943
  • Rand Daily Mail 26 July 1943
  • See Rand Daily Mail, 31 July 1943, for details
  • The Star 28 July 1943. Erasmus had cause to be on guard. Regulation 10 provided for incapacitated or illiterate voters to be assisted to vote by the presiding officer. The South African military mission in East Africa took the position that ‘The Cape Corps is a Unit of the U.D.F. and the terms of the instruction apply to them in the same manner as they do to other Personnel of the U.D.F.’ SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. I, Item 24, Venter—Pilkington Jordan, 2 June 1943, Attachment ‘B’, 2, para. 15. That contravened the literacy qualification attached to coloured voters. A draft instruction to presiding officers was included among others referred to Pretoria, there to escape notice, perhaps unwittingly, because it was approved. SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. I, Item 24, Venter—Pilkington Jordan, 2 June 1943;Item 23, DECHIEF, PRETORIA—SAMIL, NAIROBI, undated
  • One wonders if that would have been the case if they had, as the HNP desired, formed a Schedule to Act 34 of 1943
  • Rand Daily Mail 31 July 1943
  • An indication of the procedure followed is given in the Rand Daily Mail and The Star, both of 26 July 1943
  • Rand Daily Mail 29 July 1943
  • Diamond Fields Advertiser 31 July 1943
  • These ratios relate only to votes cast for the UP and the HNP. Other parties’ votes are not taken into account
  • See the second part of the Minister of the Interior's reply to Question XXII by F.C. Erasmus, 29 Feb. 1944, House of Assembly Debates, 47, 1944, col. 2151
  • Heidelberg (0,98%), Johannesburg West (3,16%), Kimberley District (7,32%), Malmes-bury (2,42%), Paarl (4,97%), Prieska (2,17%), Uitenhage (6,33%), Ventersdorp (2,04%), Vryheid (2,74%), Worcester (4,62%)
  • Public Record Office, FO 371/36598 W 13462/1091/68, Syers—Attlee, No. 257, 23 Aug. 1943, 3, 5, paras. 5, 11
  • Stultz , N. M. 1974 . Afrikaner Politics in South Africa 1934–1948 5 – 6 . Berkeley The book was published in South Africa in the same year under the title The Nationalists in Opposition 1934–1948.
  • UP Arch., CHO, Elections 1943, General Election 1943, Undated memorandum ‘General Election Prospects’
  • The Natal Daily News 9 July 1943. See also Rand Daily Mail, 29 July 1943;Forward 30 July 1943
  • The Natal Daily News 19 May 1948
  • Central Archives (CA), Smuts Collection, Vol. 389, Holder 1, File ‘Analyses of Election Prospects;Voting Strengths;Election Results;1940–1948'. The memorandum stated incorrectly that ‘in twelve constituencies, the soldier-votes secured the election of the Government candidates’. On the evidence of figures given in an accompanying statement only ten were involved. The outcome of the contests in the other two constituencies, Durban Central and Mayfair, won by the Dominion and Labour Parties respectively, would have been the same without the soldiers’ vote. But at Mayfair Labour's majority would have dropped to 26
  • Own calculation
  • Die Burger 28 June 1943;Die Transvaler 29 June 1943
  • The UP was opposed in 115 seats, the HNP in 109, the Dominion Party in 9 and Labour in 11 in addition to which 16 UP, 1 Dominion and 1 HNP candidates were returned unopposed. Excluding soldiers’ votes, the main parties’ votes and percentages were: Dominion 24 376 (3.04%);Labour 35 185 (4.38%);HNP 313 358 (39.05%) and UP 368 415 (45.91%). The Afrikaner Party, Communists, Independent Labour and Independents (including Volkseenheid) collectively drew 54 288 votes (6.76%). There were 6 870 spoiled votes (0.86%). In 1948 the UP drew 47.92% of the vote to the HNP's 37.29%
  • See UP Arch., J.M. Conradie Coll., 23, Elections, VP Nuusbrief No. 43–45, Sept. 1943, 1
  • Government Gazette. 2525 (6 May 1938), 391
  • Percentages derived from statistics given in Die Burger, 2 June 1943. The difference would have arisen because only coloured males were enfranchised rather than that proportionately more coloureds than whites joined the forces
  • See The Star. 25 May 1943;Rand Daily Mail 26 and 27 May 1943;Die Transvaler 26 May 1943;Pretoria News. 26 May 1943;and Die Volksblad 4 June 1943
  • See The Cape Times. 3, 4, 11, 19, 23, 25, 26 June 1943 and Die Burger, 2 and 10 June 1943
  • Although the number of registered soldier voters in 14 of the 18 uncontested seats is known, the official election return does not give information about the total number of registered voters in uncontested seats
  • Of a total of 46 502 white miners in 1940, only 2 504 were on active military service. See Union of South Africa, Third Interim Report of the Industrial and Agricultural Requirements Commission (UG 40–194): 29, Table XIX. The latter figure had grown to 5 000 by April 1942. CA, Smuts Coll., Vol. 152, Item 14, Social and Economic Planning Council, Report No. 1, 22 Oct. 1942, 3, para. 8
  • Rand Daily Mail 14 July 1943
  • Ibid. 5 July 1943
  • Ibid. 31 July 1943
  • 20 413 soldier voters were registered in 14 of the 18 uncontested seats. The figures for Albany, Kingwilliamstown, Durban Musgrave and Port Elizabeth Central are not available. The last two were populous urban constituencies which could each have included at least 1 500 soldier voters. Thus the total figure could have amounted to 25 000 or more. The military authorities thought that there were about 26 000 military voters in uncontested seats. SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. I, Item 57, Pilkington Jordan—Chief Electoral Officer, 22 June 1943;Item 71, Pilkington Jordan—Blaine, 5 July 1943
  • House of Assembly Debates 45, 1943, 242. See also The Cape Argus, 30 July 1943
  • SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Vol. II, Attachment to Item 3, Officer Commanding SA Army Signals—GOC, UDF Admin. HQ, Helwan, 14 July 1943 and (Vol. II, Item 16) Pilkington Jordan—DCS, 27 July 1943
  • Ibid. Vol. II, Item 4, Theron—Beyers, 22 July 1943;Aanwinste, Holder 38, Frank Theron Coll., Theron—Van Ryneveld, 2 August 1943 (Liaison 105), 1, para. 4
  • Patterson , S. 1957 . The Last Trek: A Study of the Boer People and the Afrikaner Nation 101 London See also E.A. Walker, A History of Southern Africa New Impression (London, 1964), 729 and M. Roberts and A.E.G. Trollip, The South African Opposition 1939–1945: An Essay in Contemporary History (London, 1947), 167
  • Rand Daily Mail 29 June 1943
  • Soldiers’ votes cast for independents totalled 2 068 or 2,49% of all soldiers’ votes. See Table 2. Votes cast inside and outside the country cannot be differentiated
  • House of Assembly Debates 47, 1944, 366
  • Rand Daily Mail 16 June 1943
  • Ibid. 1 July 1943. See also UP Arch., CHO, Elections 1943, Complaints, Correspondence and Annexures, Moorcroft—Oosthuizen, 9 July 1943 (enclosure), Oosthuizen—Moorcroft, 13 July 1943;and SADF, AG 3 154, Holder 78, 154/X/800, Vol. II, Attachment to Item 2, Officer Commanding Air Force Station Germiston—Director Air Personnel & Organisation, 16 July 1943, 1
  • Rand Daily Mail 5 July 1943. See also Sunday Times, 4 July 1943
  • SADF, AG 3154, Holder 78, 154/X/800, Vol. 1, Item 85, Memorandum ‘Parliamentary General Election, 1943’, Pilkington Jordan—Adjudant-General, 12 July 1943, 1
  • Terblanche , H. O. 1983 . John Vorster: OB-Generaal en Afrikanervegter 122 Roodepoort
  • SADF, Aanwinste, Holder 38, Frank Theron Coll., Theron—Smuts, 15 June 1943, 1–2
  • Ibid. AG 3 154. Holder 78, File 154/X/800, Item 71, Pilkington Jordan—Blaine, 5 July 1943, 1
  • Ibid. AG 3 154, Holder 504. File 154/696 (Springbok Legion), Item 57, Notes written at Smuts's request, 5 August 1942, 2, para. 7
  • UP Arch., CHO, Elections, General and Provincial Election 1943, Correspondence and Circulars. Loock–Oosthuizen, 12 June 1943. Loock joined the HNP in 1946, representing it in the House of Assembly as MP for Vereeniging from 1949 to 1953
  • See, for example, Opmars na die Republiek: Dr. Malan oor Herenigde Nasionale Party se Toekomsbeleid vir 'n Nuwe Suid-Afrika, September 1942, 10
  • See the various volumes of the file UP CHO, World War II, Correspondence of a personal nature regarding soldiers and recruits
  • Die Transvaler 14 and 15 (editorial) Jan. 1941
  • CA, Smuts Coll., Vol. 152, Item 14, Social and Economic Planning Council, Report No. 1, 22 Oct. 1942, 3, para. 9
  • An adjustment to the fund's regulations to stimulate recruiting after the fall of Tobruk. It was made retroactive in the case of those who had enlisted in the pre-Tobruk period
  • The Natal Mercury 19 Jan. 1943
  • UP Arch., J.M. Conradie Coll., 4.3, Party Policies, Party letter No. 1, 1 July 1942, 2
  • 1943 . House of Assembly Debates , 45 746
  • Ibid. 760 See J.I.C.'s complaint about the inclusion of the Governor-General's Fund. The Natal Mercury, 6 Feb. 1943 (letter)
  • Union of South Africa, Select Committee on Soldiers’ Pay and Allowances (SC3–1943): xxv
  • Ibid. 69
  • SADF, CGS GP 2, Holder 93, File 169/7, Fortnightly Intelligence Report, No. 38, 10 May 1943, 8–9;UP Arch., CHO, Elections 1943, Military election matters, correspondence, Nissen—Oosthuizen, 12 June 1943;Oosthuizen–Nissen, 18 June 1943;Mrs Luscombe—Oosthuizen, 14 June 1943;Oosthuizen—Mrs Luscombe, 19 June 1943;Rand Daily Mail 19 Jan. 1943 (letter), 3 March (letter);The Natal Mercury 23 Jan. 1943 (editorial), 25 Jan. (The Daily Forum)
  • See the various volumes of the file UP CHO, World War II, Correspondence of a personal nature regarding soldiers and recruits.

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