The worldwide depression after the end of the First World War had led to a strike in South Africa, known as the Rand Rebellion, which had been defused through a combination of military force and negotiation with the outgunned unions, earning Smuts the enmity of the labour vote.

B. M. Hertzog formed the government and became Prime Minister – a position he was to hold until 1939.

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division.

The representation by province, under the fourth delimitation report of 1923, is set out in the table below.

The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1919) delimitation.