“Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY. APRIL 9, 1937. NAZISM IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 403, 9 April 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY. APRIL 9, 1937. NAZISM IN SOUTH AFRICA.

——- o Germany is not likely to get any satisfaction in her protest against the anti-Nazi proclamation Germans in the mandated territory of South-West Africa. In fact, the protest must greatly stiffen the back of the South African Government in its attitude towards this former German territory. Up till now the German minority in the very small white population of the territory has been treated generously. German has been retained alongside Dutch and and English as one of the local official languages, and Germans have been permitted a fair share in local self-government. The South African Government will probably come to the conclusion that all this has been misinterpreted by Herr Hitler as a sign of weakness. The Government, on December 11, announced that although it was being urged to incorporate the mandated territory in the Union as a fifth province, a course to which there was no legal obstacle, it had decided to continue separate administration. Neverrheless it declared that “the mandate was conferred upon the Union irrevocably under’solemn treaty, and the Union cannot legitimately be deprived of the territory against its wish.” It declared, indeed, that it had "as little thought of abandoning the mandate as of abandoning its own territorry." Long before this declaration, however, subversive action had been going on among the few unnaturalised Germans in the territory, and the Government had made it clear that all aliens would be debarred from membership of political organisations. This check to Nazism provides heavy penalties for anybody taking an oath of allegiance to a foreign political organisation or administering such an oath. German propaganda has already created a revulsion of feeling among the Dutch and English peoples of the Union, who have come together in a demand for incorpo ation. The German protest will deepen this feeling, and strengthen the case for incorporation as a measure of self-defence.