ABSTRACT
In August 1919, only two months after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the Great War, the British War Cabinet accepted the principle of a 'Ten Year Rule,' which presupposed that Britain would not become engaged in a major war during the following decade. In post-Versailles Europe, the 'long hangover' was accompanied by an overarching concern with domestic issues, particularly the effects of the Great Depression. Crowds gathered outside city and town halls across the Union to wait for news, and special editions of newspapers were snapped up. All police leave was cancelled, and the Criminal Investigation Department was ordered to keep a check on all known Nazi sympathizers in South Africa and South West Africa. In South Africa, the political realities of the segregated society determined the outer limits of political debate amongst most whites.
