The confusions of 1931

When Britain left gold, South Africa did not follow at once. Its government said it would never follow. Unlike R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog and Nicholaas Havenga, his finance minister, were serious in their determination to retain the gold standard. Their policies were controversial both in London and in South Africa. In October 1931 Charles te Water, the South African high commissioner in London, told his diary:

For fifteen months the controversy ebbed and flowed. What was best for South Africa? What, if anything, did the United Kingdom want or expect of the South African government? What pressures were applied? What arguments were marshaled by the government, and by the opposition in Parliament and outside? How was the gold standard finally abandoned, and what followed from that abandonment? Finally, why did South Africa adhere to sterling at all? These are the questions with which this chapter is concerned.

The South African debate was very public, and highly politicized. It therefore claimed the attention of the South African public in a way that the Canadian debate never managed to do.