Military history of South Africa during World War II Westminster with its head of state being the British king, the South African Prime Minister on 1 September 1939 was J.B.M. Hertzog – the leader of the pro-Afrikaner and anti-British National Party. The National Party had joined in a unity government with the pro-British South African Party of Jan Smuts in 1934 as the United Party. Hertzog's problem was that South Africa was constitutionally obligated to support Great Britain against Nazi Germany. The Polish-British Common Defence Pact obligated Britain, and in turn its dominions, to help Poland if attacked by the Nazis. When Adolf Hitler's forces attacked Poland on 1
Lords Commissioners of the Treasury Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service. Other offices have historically been linked to the Prime Ministership but are no longer. Until Clement Attlee became Prime Minister, the vast majority of premiers had served as either Leader of the House of Commons or Leader of the House of Lords depending on which chamber in which they sat. As the power of the executive swelled, the need to have a legislative-oriented office receded. In 1942 during the Second World War Winston Churchill had made himself Minister of Defence, a title Prime Ministers would hold for thirteen years thereafter, but