SOUTH AFRICA'S PART

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 84, 6 November 1939, Page 2

SOUTH AFRICA'S PART

SIR ABE BAILEY'S VIEWS

Sir Abe Bailey, in a letter to "The Times/' asks that the B itish public should not misjudge the political, situation in S:>uth Africa, nor draw unfavourable comparisons between the attitude of the Union and that of the other Dominions in the war. "General Hertzog," writes Sir Abe. "and many of those who think with him must not be dismissed as antiBritish or pro-German. "The late Prime .Minister has always had to bear in hand the susceptibilities and prejudices of large numbers of Afrikaners who do not yet understand the real meaning of the war that is now proceeding in Europe, anil cannot, grasp in this life-and-death struggle the probability that the end of Danzig and Poland may involve in the days to come the fate of Pretoria and South Africa. General Hertzog's policy of neutrality, though of course I personally strongly disagree "with it, safeguarded the Simonstown agreement and therefore would not have jeopardised British sea power and, as the Genreal himself said, would have been based on the maintenance of the friendliest relations with Great Britain.

(South Africa's New Prime Minister '"■Finally, let us remember that the new Prime Minister o[' South Ai'rie,') is also an Afrikaner; that in the Great War lie rendered signal services to ihe British Commonwealth in Ihe council chamber and on the field of battle; and that Dutch and British alike share an equal pride in the glorious and tragic memories of Delville Wood. Let us therefore do ali in our power both here and in South Africa not to add to the difficulties Avhich General Smuts at this fateful hour is facing Avith his oAvn incomparable and indomitable courage. The fairer Ave are in our judgments, the more Ave abstain from criticisms of the present Prime Minister's former 'colleagues, the better Ave shall help in the common cause.