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Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, the United Kingdom and France declared war against Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939, beginning World War II. This reignited the previously tense issue of neutrality in British wars, and a cabinet meeting occurred at Groote Schuur, an official residence of the prime minister, the day before the declarations of war. Hertzog and five other ministers supported continued neutrality but seven, including Smuts, supported immediate entry into the war against Germany.[8] This was a break from the previous position of Smuts, who a year earlier had endorsed a statement by Hertzog supporting neutrality. While some Hertzog supporters criticised Smuts for failing to notify him of a position change, biographer Keith Hancock responded that Smuts had made at least 20 publicised speeches on his changing position between the statement and the war.[9]
The House of Assembly voted on a resolution compelling the government to sever Nazi ties and abandon neutrality[10] on 4 September;[8] after it passed 80–67 and governor-general Patrick Duncan refused Hertzog's request to hold a snap election, the prime minister resigned on 5 September and Smuts began a second non-consecutive term to replace him the next day. The UP now led by Smuts formed a coalition with the Dominion and Labour parties. While four MPs who had been National members before the merger supported Smuts's ascension to the premiership and his cabinet contained six Afrikaners, most Afrikaners abandoned the UP after the split, triggering a major political realignment[10] which brought South Africa closer to its pre-merger party system.[9]
However we may regret what has occurred, there is no doubt that few other things could so quickly or effectively have consolidated Afrikaans-speaking Afrikanerdom.
After the Hertzog–Smuts union ended, the former remained divided with the GNP on the outcome of the merger; while Hertzog believed union was a good idea which only failed due to the changing position of Smuts, the GNP argued that the split proved Hertzog made a mistake in agreeing to it and expected a confession to that extent. While Hertzog maintained his stance, conciliation between Afrikaners and British South Africans lost appeal to the former group,[11] who also supported a united Afrikaner political front.[12] Hertzog and the GNP were also divided in their positions on republicanism; while the GNP believed that a merged party should advocate for a republic, Hertzog saw republicanism as a movement supported by many but not all Afrikaners and supported the pre-merger NP's policy of individual expression to form a united front against the UP.[13]
On 27 January 1940 a merger agreement between the GNP and Hertzog's faction was published, forming the Reunited National Party or People's Party. While the agreement provided for "best use" of both party manifestos until a unified one was created, it included an explicit statement supporting republicanism after a referendum, describing a republic as "the only effective guarantee that South Africa will not again be drawn into the wars of Great Britain".[14] Despite this statement, the agreement also called for equality between Afrikaners and British South Africans and stated "Membership of the party will not be denied or refused to any national-minded Afrikaner who is prepared to subject himself to the party obligations, but who is not convinced of the desirability of establishing a republic in the existing circumstances" as a concession to Hertzog, who became parliamentary leader of the HNP.[13]
Fracturing (1940–1942)
The HNP won a by-election in the Cape Province constituency of Kuruman in 1940, flipping the seat from the UP with a majority of 803 votes.[10]
On November 6, 1940, the Orange Free State HNP voted on competing proposals for a provincial manifesto in Bloemfontein, one prepared by Hertzog and the other by the party Federal Council. The Federal Council version supported the immediate establishment of a republic[12] and the adoption of "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" (which became co-official with "God Save the King" in 1938)[15] as the sole national anthem, while failing to ensure equal status and rights for British South Africans, and the vote was seen as a vote of confidence in Hertzog's leadership of the provincial party. After Hertzog's version was overwhelmingly rejected, he abruptly announced his resignation from Free State HNP leadership[12] and left the meeting; C. R. Swart was elected as his successor and criticised Hertzog for capitulating to British South Africans. Discussion of the incident was barred at a Transvaal meeting on December 3.[16]
Hertzog resigned as an MP alongside Nicolaas Havenga and senator J. Brebner on 12 December, criticising the HNP for "following a course which [...] must necessarily lead to the downfall of Afrikanerdom". While MP E. A. Conroy formed the pro-Hertzog Afrikaner Party (AP) in early 1941, Hertzog had retired from politics at that point and his movement lost influence without its leader; only ten of the 38 UP MPs who supported Hertzog during the World War II vote joined Conroy's party, all of which were backbenchers.[16] The HNP won the by-elections in Fauresmith and Smithfield triggered by Havenga and Hertzog's resignations respectively; while the UP did not contest the elections, allowing the AP to focus on opposing the HNP, AP candidates only received at most 44% of the vote.[17]
A pro-Nazi pressure group known as the New Order, led by former defence minister Oswald Pirow, emerged within the HNP in 1941[17] and came to comprise a majority of the HNP's parliamentary group. The group viewed Hertzog's removal from office as a conspiracy, described by writer F.S. Crafford as the result of "years of planning, concession, and compromise". American academic Newell Stultz described the New Order's goal as to "sweep away democracy and substitute a Christian, white, National-Socialist republic, separated from the British Crown and founded on the principles of state authority ('Staatsgesag') and national discipline". Malan and HNP leadership opposed the New Order for attempting to divide the HNP's members,[18] launching a campaign against political factionism within the party. This culminated in Pirow announcing on 14 January 1942 that while the New Order would remain a part of the HNP, it would form a separate parliamentary group, reducing the HNP to only nine MPs as 16 joined the new group.[19]
The party further faced pressure from the Ossewabrandwag (OB), a Afrikaner nationalist paramilitary and cultural organisation which threatened to supplant the HNP or remove its role by encouraging extra-parliamentary political participation.[19] While the HNP and OB signed an agreement on 30 October 1940 that the two entities would not "interfere or meddle with the affairs or in the domain of the other", they returned to conflict soon after due to conflicting views of the HNP's domain, which the party claimed to be all political affairs but the OB claimed to only be party politics, which Stultz described as "an imprecise conception approximately meaning the scope and workings of the parliamentary system". The HNP and OB finally broke on 3 July 1941 after the latter distributed a letter on a proposed constitution; after attempts to bring the group under the party's control failed, Malan ordered all HNP members to resign from the OB on 3 October.[20]
In an attempt to reaffirm the HNP's commitment to republicanism amid its conflict with the OB, Malan published the full constitution which had been summarised in the OB's letter on 23 January 1942. Stultz described the constitution as "authoritarian and reactionary"[21] and added, citing author William H. Vatcher, that the constitution surprised British South Africans and likely also moderate Afrikaners.[22]
1943–1951
The Herenigde Nasionale Party gained popularity after the war and unexpectedly won the elections of 1948 with a majority of seats but a significant minority of the popular vote. Internationally it is known for the implementation of apartheid. After 1948, the HNP merged with the Afrikaner Party, another Afrikaner nationalist party led by one of Hertzog's protégés, and reverted to the short name, the Nasionale Party (National Party), which it retained until shortly after the fall of apartheid during the 1990s.
The initials of the Herenigde Nasionale Party, HNP, were later used by a breakaway party that was established in 1969, the rightwing Herstigte Nasionale Party (Re-established National Party).
Department of Foreign Affairs and Information (1982). South Africa 1982: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa (8thed.). Chris van Rensburg Publications. IAsouthafrica1982o0000unse.
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