FOR OTTAWA

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1932, Page 3

FOR OTTAWA

SOUTH AFRICAN DELEGATES.

CAPE TOWN, April 27

The South African delegation to Ottawa will be led by the Minister for Financo (Mr N. C. Havenga). He is the one man of conspicuous ability in the Cabinet though at present his stock is low with the public because he is held to be chiefly responsible for the determination ol the Government, to remain on the gold standard at any, cost. Mr Havenga, in addition to being a most agreeable man personally, stands head and ‘shoulders above h.s colleagues in ability. At heart he is probably as firm a Natiunalsit as any of them; but he is the ,pnc and only man in Cabinet who is capable of taking, fairly consistently, - the bread y,ie\y; of ,'a : South African statesman.,. H-i& :colleagues will be the Minister; of Lands (Air Piet Grobler), and.,..flio, LMlfiister for Alines and Induotriev. |(sir.‘ A. P. J. Fourie).

''Air Grobler, the leader of the Na-i tionalists in the Transvaal, was aqirotege of Oom Paul Kruger, to whom, he is closely related, and as a youth, he was destined for the diplomatic ser-i vice of the old Transvaal Republic. He has sufficient leanings towards'ex-, treme Nationalism to be acceptable to the Transvaal Republicans; but lie ’ls-' regarded as one of the ‘ “most solid men in Cabinet. Hb -is not likely to be very helpful iff the deliberations at Ottawa, but it is equally improbable that he will be a clog on the machine. Air Fourie is a good after-dinner speaker, and Air Havenga will probably be well pleased if lie will confine himself to hovering like a ponderous butterfly over the surface of the proceedings.

It must'be confessed that Ottawa does not bulk as large in the- thoughts of South Africans as in tho.-:e of the citizens of the sister Dominions. T.l|e one definite‘'reference that the Prime Minister (General Hertzog) did make to it seem to be'designed principally to persuade eveVyhbdy to leave the subject alone. There have been some resolutions from producing interests asking the Government to seek special favours for their products, but such resolutions hardly represent an inter-, est in the larger issues to be decided at Ottawa.

The South African Party has not pressed the question. Its leaders know that better tilings can be expected ol Air Havenga if he goes to Ottawa unfettered than could, be exppeted of. hint if lie went with the echoes' ringing in of acrimonious; debates,, such as would assuredly, occur if the question were pressed, in the tjouse of Assembly, and the extreme- anti-imperi-alists of his own party, were allowed to express their, feelings, freely.