NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 18, 16 October 1942, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Discerning readers will no doubt have noted that the Prime Ministers amendment to the motion of no-confidence moved by the Leader of the Opposition was .so worded that a vote against it would mean a vote against the wholehearted prosecution of the national war effort. To make this quite clear Mr. Fraser’s amendment is here reprinted with the pertinent section in black type:

This House pledges anew its united and wholehearted support for the Government and the War Cabinet in the conduct of the war effort, and expresses its determination as representatives of all the people in the Dominion to prosenite that war effort with singleness of purpose and undiininished energy until victory for the cause of democracy and freedom is won. This was a political artifice palpably used to sidetrack members from the vital principles at issue and nt the same time to put. the Government’s critics in the wrong. Such an attempt to place the House in an invidious dilemma was unworthy of a debate in which the authority of constituted government and law enforcement in a time of national peril were .the dominant issues.

General Smuts has for so long been a prominent figure in the political life of the British Commonwealth—his famous declaration at a function held in his honour in London during the last war did much to popularize that term—that his ability as a military strategist tends to be overlooked. He was frequently consulted in 1914-18. and played a part in the preparation of plans that led to the defeat of the Turkish forces in Palestine. He once displayed his skill as a tactician against British forces in days Ion" past When therefore this proved leader expresses the opinion that the" Allied nations must now consider switching over from the defensive to the offensive, and bases his views on “the resources we command,” weight must be attached to them. He is now in London, where the stratedecisions will probably be made, and his services will probably prove of the same high order as those which led to him being invited to join the British War Cabinet years ago. It is significant that this advocate of the offensive should be in London at this time and his visit will certainly lead many people to believe that vital decisions are pending.