"AFRICA FOR AFRIKANDERS."

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 73, 25 March 1916, Page 6

"AFRICA FOR AFRIKANDERS."

VIEWS OF "THE FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE." Some very interesting views on the appointment of General Smuts to take charge of the operations in East Africa are contained in the Bloemfontein nwspaper 'De Vriend des Volks.' The paper says:—lf General Smuts had been appointed as Comm'ander.-in-Chief, of one or other army in Europe people would perhaps have been justified in smiling unbelievingly, but the facts were different. In this appointment our own part of the world was concerned.

"De Vriend des Volks" thinks it probable that 'our traditional methods of making war" will prove to be the best, and the choice of commander may prove to be a good one, providing the East African Commander-in-Chief is not bothered with too many "staff officers from Europe, people who are altogether raw to South African war methods."

The paper- says, "If General Smuts i s successful in German East as General Botha was in German West (and there is no reason to doubt it), a new lustre will be added to the Boer name, and the superstitious fear that many European nations had for us as sharpshooters and guerrilla fighters will be enhanced. A second advantage, of which only the germ will be planted, but which will grow into a tree, is an Afrikander's Monroe doctrine. The action of the Union as a more or less independent (zelfstandige) war-mak-ing Power will have more far-reaching consequences than most of us think, and above all, for more than the European nations who are concerned in the titanic struggle dream of at the moment."

The paper goes on to refer to the say which the Union will have in the settlement after the war, and proceeds: "Generals B'otha and Smuts will live in history as the builders of the greatness of southern Africa, by demonstrating. .that we are able to maintain order in our house, and this message is meant for more ears than those who have already had some suspicion of it." In the course of a bracketed note to its editorial, the paper explains' the Monroe doctrine which, in a nutshell, means "America for-the Americans.''