CHAPTER III 
THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA 
§ 1. THE ForMatioN oF THE UNION 
Ar the beginning of February 1909 the National Conven- 
tion, which had sat at Durban and at Capetown, concluded 
its labours and laid before the public of South Africa in the 
form of a Bill the scheme which the members of the Conven- 
tion had agreed on for the Union of South Africa, to be 
constituted in the first instance from among the four Colonies 
of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal, and the 
Orange River Colony, or from any two or more which would 
consent to join. The draft Act was then laid formally before 
the four Colonial Parliaments, and amendments to the draft 
were discussed in each. Of these none were carried in the 
Transvaal. In the case of Natal several were adopted, and 
the Government in accepting the Act declared that it must 
be submitted to a referendum before the Colony accepted 
union. In the other two Colonies the draft was accepted 
subject to certain amendments. The National Convention 
reassembled at Bloemfontein in May and discussed the draft 
with the amendments proposed by the Parliaments of the 
Cape and Natal, and the result was that the draft was re- 
affirmed with certain alterations and signed by the delegates 
of all the Colonies as altered on May 11. It was then 
submitted to the judgements of the several Parliaments and 
to a referendum under Act No. 2 of 1909 in the case of Natal. 
Delegates were appointed by the Parliaments after approving 
the revised draft to proceed to England, and to secure the 
passing of the Bill into law as an Act of the Imperial Parlia- 
ment, and the Bill' was introduced accordingly in the House 
‘ Printed as Parl. Pap., Cd. 4525, as revised by the Convention as 
Cd. 4721, and, revised, as H. L. 113, 1909, for introduction into Parliament. 
The Act is 9 Edw. VIL ¢. 9. See Brand, Union of South Africa (1909); 
Keith, Journ. Soc. Comp. Ley., x. 40-92; Egerton, Federations and Unions, 
pp. 231-91, and the Debates of the Colonies for 1909.