AFRICAN AIM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20039, 11 September 1939, Page 9

AFRICAN AIM

GOLD RESOURCES CREDITS ABROAD SUBMARINE BASES LITTLE-KNOWN PLANS UNION’S FIRST WAR STEP SEIZURE OF VESSEL (Elec. To). Copyright—United Press Assn,) (Rccd, Sopt. 11, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 9.

“When General J. C. Smuts squelched the pro-German group’s neutrality proposals and carried the Union of South Africa into war, he did better than was realised," states the London correspondent of the New York Times.

“It is reported that the neutrality proposals veiled a German plot to acquire South Africa’s entire gold output and to establish submarine bases and reconnaissance air bases in sparsely-settled coastal districts.

“South Africa would then have been isolated from the Empire and controlled by a pro-German group which planned the requisition of gold, paying for it in South African currency. They would cease sending gold to London and sell instead in New York, where it could be transformed into dollar credits, with which the Reichsbank could buy goods and services, allegedly on behalf of neutrals but actually for the use of the war machine.

“The extent to which individual South African pro-Germans were cognisant of Germany's ultimate ambitions is doubtful.” The Union's first war action was taken when armed police seized the German ship Hagen, lying in Durban Harbour. The Hagen is a vessel of 5788 tons owned by the HamburgAmerika Line.