‘Billy the Book’ gave odds against SA becoming a republic

ONE of the odd stories of the first week of October 1960 was about the jailing of a journalist – for eight days – for declining to name a source.

The source was a gambler about whom Mr Brian Parkes had written an article in which it was revealed he was offering odds of three to one against a republic, then the subject of a national referendum among white voters.

In the article, Parkes quoted the gambler, described only as Billy the Book, as saying he was “going to ‘make a packet’ out of Dr (Hendrik) Verwoerd’s defeat”.

It is not altogether clear why this became the subject of a court case, but nobody, it’s fair to say, made a cent.

On the same day, the headline news was unequivocal. Here is that report. October 6, 1960 Final vote certain to be Yes

This afternoon South Africa was on the way to becoming a republic. With the referen- dum results announced in 107 constituencies, the anti-republican lead was being steadily whittled down – and most of the outstanding seats are republican strongholds. At the time of going to press the anti-republican lead had fallen to 40 158.

The remaining 49 constituencies however are almost certain to swing the issue firmly in the republicans’ favour. Most of these seats were won by the Nationalists in the 1958 general election.

The results indicate no change of allegiance or swing of opinion among the country’s voters. The Nationalist gains appear to have been scored mainly by new, young voters on the roll and one of the most significant factors in the referendum might well have been the comparatively high birthrate in the Afrikaans-speaking community.

The Prime Minister (Dr H F Verwoerd) regards the victory for the republic in the referendum as foundation for a change to better relations in South Africa, even though it will take time to work through.

He told the Nationalist Press in his first pronouncement after the result was known, the message to him showed that a new era had dawned, of which the fruit would be plucked in the future.

A custard tart provided an amusing incident in the referendum today. It ended up on the face of an abusive republican. The incident occurred at Retreat.