GENERAL SMUTS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 June 1920, Page 3

GENERAL SMUTS

Views of British empire

By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.)

i (Received this dav at 8 a.m.) , LONDON, Juno 3. General Smuts, interviewed by the "Daily Chronicle” correspondent, declared that apart from the grave situation in central and eastern Europe and the apparent impotence of the League of Nations, British statesmen should give attention 4 to the constitutional position of the British Empire. Geographically. the United Kingdom was an adjunct of Europe, hut politically it was-the centre of the world wide Empire. Upited Kingdom, seemingly, did not give attention to the fundamental constitutional changes brought about by the war ip the British Commonwealth. The old pre-war British Empire was gone, in the sense that it connected the > colonies pr subordinate nations clusteiIng round- one. master nation. UnforK tunately the qld machinery still remained. Ho disputed Hon Bonar Law’s con tention that Dominion Home Rule was tatamount to a Separatist Republic, ns- ' sorting “We are an organic union forming one whole with the King as tlm connecting link. Dissolution would be revolutionary. There must be complete • equality and freedom enjoyed, by the sister states, united by the King Only on that foundation will the British Com. pn on wealth