Word: verwoerds
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When South Africa becomes a republic it will automatically lost its status as a member of the Commonwealth. In offering the electorate a republic Verwoerd promised that South Africa would be readmitted to the Commonwealth as a republic, on the same basis that Ghana and India were. He did this to assure the voters that South Africa would not lose the trade benefits it enjoys through the tariff concessions accorded to all Commonwealth countries...
...home, Verwoerd's troubles have already started. In Natal, the "Jingo" Province, the republic was rejected by more than 70 per cent of the voters, the majority of whom are English-speaking and regard Britain as "home." There have been cries of "secession" in the province since the result of the referendum has been announced...
...Verwoerd also has to silence the British Press which was described by a leading government supporter at the height of the referendum campaign as "the last bastion" which the Nationalists had to overcome to gain complete control over South Africa...
...government hopes, too, that the United Nations will lose prestige and power because a dangerous (to Verwoerd) precedent of U.N. intervention has been established in the Congo...
This led to cries that Britain had deserted White South Africa to curry favor with the emergent Black states of Africa. Verwoerd said that only a republic could solve the problems facing the Whites, and speeded up his plans to hold the referendum...