SOUTH AFRICA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5144, 27 June 1927, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICA.

THE FLAG QUESTION.

UNION JACK WILL REMAIN,

A visitor to Wellington is Mr H. WMorris, Mayor of Queenstown, Cape Province, South Africa The town is situated about 600 miles from Capetown, is strongly pro-British, and is represented in- the- Union Parliament by Mr Livingston-Moffat. Mr Morris is visiting New Zealand for health reqs-ns, and has included Rotorua in his itinerary.

Asked about the flag dispute, the visitor remarked that he was of the opinion that the Union Jack would still be maintained in some form as the national emblem. The party who were urging a change were not prepared to stand by the Union Jack in any shape. Another party was quite prepared to have the lack in the fltg with a yellow bar in one corner and a green one in another, emblematic of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. Mr Morris further said : “For my part, 1 am not at all worried About the flag question, became the flag flown tft'-the citizens generally on any particular holiday would be the Union Jack, in 99 percent- of cases. On the public buildings presumably the Government flag would be flown. In regard to the municipal buildings the matter would depend on- the Mayor for the- time being.” Asked if he thought the Afrikander Party wished to “cut the painter” with Britain, and to fly a new flag entirely, Mr Morris said he did not think so. The party standing for the present flag did not object to an alteration in the form of the symbol, so long as the Union Jack was left in the corner, on the lines of the Do-, minion flags generally. “All we ask for is one quarter of the hag to put the Union Jack in,” said the visitor. Mr Morris further remarked that he thought the matter would be finally settled by a compromise berween the parties. The Minister-in-Charge, the Rev. Dr. Malan. had the support of the Prime Minister in his action, but the former was the originator of the idea. Personally he would prefer that the whole question should be left in abeyance, in the hopei that the great healer, Time, would solve the trouble.

During his visit Mr Morris is consulting local authorities on the question of road-making methods, with a view to introducing a better system into his district, where at present tar-sealing is being experimented with.