SOUTH AFRICAN UNION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 119, 13 February 1919, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN UNION

REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA DEBATED IN THE ASSEMBLY NATIONALISTS' AGITATION CONDEMNED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Cape Town, February 11. A debate on the Republican propaganda was initiated in the Assembly on a motion by Sir Thomas Smart, Leader of the Opposition, that tlie House should emphatically condemn the agitation now being carried on for the dissolution of the Union and the severance of the connection at present existing ■ between South Africa and Great Britain; and should further express' the opinion that such agitation, if persisted in, will lead to civil war and bloodshed in South Afrija. The debate is expected to continue for some time. Speaking to the motion, Sir Thomas Smart recalled G.sneral Hertzog's previous eulogies of the Acts of Union. He declared that the English section accepted the Union in good faith, and honourably fulfilled their obligations. So also did a large proportion of the Dutch; but the Nationalist leaders were seeking to destroy the Constitution. He ridiculed the position of the men who were about to embark on a British ship, under the protection of the British Fleet, on a ■> ildgoose chase to President .Wilson and the League of Nations, and stigmatised the campaign as one of treachery and calumny, which must be ended and could never succeed by peaceful means. Every Englishman and loval Dutchman would fight to the last in defence of the Union. Mr. F. S. Malan, Minister of M ; nes, Industries, and Education, said: "The Union shall be maintained. It is false to say it can be changed constitutionally. Such a change can only be revolutionary. The Union must be upheld at any cost."

He moved an amendment welcoming all .constitutional developments tending to make the Union in the fullest sense a self-governing Dominion, but > strongly condemning the preset agitation—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.