Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 1940. SOUTH AFRICA’S PART.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 242, 10 September 1940, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 1940. SOUTH AFRICA’S PART.

General Hertzog’s antiputby towards Britain lias been again shown in the Union Parliament. On the opening of the second war session he advanced a motion deploring the action of General Smuts’s Government in .pursuing the war, and urged thut steps be immediately taken to restore peace with Germany. The majority of members who gave their allegiance a year ago again showed their faith in the man who is Prime Minister of a country which has practically everything to lose were Hitler to win the war. General Hertzog, the champion some years ago of secession from the British Empire, though in the later years of his administrative career he had kept this in the background, tried hard at the outbreak of war to keep South Africa out of the conflict. A resolution of neutrality was presented to Parliament, but Empire sentiment was stronger, and it was defeated by 80 votes to GT, an amendment by General Smuts calling for the severance of relations with Germany and continued co-operation with the British Government being carried by the same majority. With the outbreak of war also came the severance of the ties under which General Hertzog and General Smuts had been colleagues and co-leaders since the fusion of their respective parties into the United Party. General Hertzog resigned when the Governor-Gen-eral refused his request for a general election and General Smuts thereupon formed a Cabinet and became South Africa’s leader in the war effort. The year has witnessed no change in South African sentiment towards .the British Empire’s fight against Hitlerism, and the majority which supported General 'Smuts in September, 1939, towards cooperation with Britain remains stable to-day.

It is a marked tribute to the cause for which we are fighting that General Hertzog’s hostile motion should have been so roundly defeated. The past twelve months have seen events which might well have shattered the faith of some of her people, but the majority realise that fundamentally Britain is stronger than ever, and Hitler’s gains cannot be consolidated and must eventually prove a liability to him. The voting was also a stirring tribute to tlje influence of General Smuts, who has never wavered in his faith in the Empire’s success against Germany and in the righteousness of its cause. A thousand times he would rather be with Britain than with Germany, is the declaration of this great Empire figure who realises more than anyone else in the Union that peace with Germany would mean-linking South Africa to that country, and submitting to its dominance. Strong-

in riches but weak in defences was the description he applied last year to the Union, which could not, except in association with Britain, expect to remain secure against the envy of less happy lands. To-day South Africa is playing a notable part in the war. and its remarkably efficient Air Force operating from Kenya Jias harried the Italian aerodromes and bases and their important towns, and seaports in Abyssinia and Italian Somaliland. At the same time the Union is strengthening its defences against attack as part of a large scheme. '