SOUVENIR OF VISIT OF THE RT. HON. HAROLD MACMILLAN:

17 pages: illustration (group portrait). Quarto. Stiff paper wraps.

Harold MacMillan visited South Africa during early 1960 and on 3rd February 1960 give this address to a joint sitting of the Union Houses of Parliament. It was an important speech that reflected a change of policy towards the Empire by the Government in Westminster. The Suez Crisis had led to the eventual resignation of Anthony Eden as Prime Minister and his replacement by MacMillan in 1957. The Suez Crisis, described by the historian A.J.P. Taylor as a “humiliation” for Great Britain, made the Government in Westminster reflect on their situation in the world. Realising that the days of Empire and “gunboat” diplomacy were over, MacMillan, and the British Government, moved swiftly to divest themselves of their colonies around the world. Whereas just nine countries had gained independence in Africa in the decade 1950-1960, seventeen would do so in 1960 alone and a further eight in the two years thereafter. African nationalism was a growing force and MacMillan’s speech in Cape Town acknowledged this fact and the fact that South Africa would have to come to terms with this force too.

MacMillan began his speech heaping praise on the Union and its population. Pointing out the links between the two countries, he expanded upon the positives that prevailed in the relationship. He then, however, changed the focus of his address and dealt with the new realities that Great Britain was having to face and which he suggested, South Africa would also have to face: “national consciousness” was a political fact, he suggested, “Whether we like it or not”. “The wind of change is blowing through this continent”. (p. 8)

The Union Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, gave the traditional Vote of Thanks to the speaker (included in this publication). His was not a speech full of platitudes and thanks. Instead Verwoerd indicted that his Government saw “great danger inherent” in the polices that MacMillan was intent on following and which he had further elucidated in this speech. It is interesting that the Speaker of the House, J.H. Conradie, ordered this Souvenir to be published. It is possible that at the time those in the National Party felt that Mr Verwoerd’s extempore reply to MacMillan had been a superb piece of oratory and had laid out South Africa’s position in a clear manner for opponents to understand. Events in South Africa and Africa moved with increased speed from February 1960.

In retrospect this speech marks a dramatic change in focus and can be seen as the end of Empire and start of the Commonwealth. It also marked, for South Africa, a particular break with the past. Increasingly South Africa, first as a Union and then as a Republic, would be seen as an outlier in world that was moving away from the Verwoerdian way of thinking.

An important and pivotal piece of Africana, fragile in nature and seldom seen.