HISTORIC OCCASION.
SOUTH AFRICA’S MAJORITY. BRITISH ARMY WITHDRAWN. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Capetown, Dec. 3. Speaking at a banquet at Pretoria to General Carter, in connection with the handing over of the military command to the Union Government, Geneial Smuts described Prince Arthur of Connaught as the most popular Gov-enor-General South Africa had ever had.
The Prince, replying, said that the handing over of the military command was evidence of the mutual confidence between South Africa and the rest of the Empire. • While regretting the severance of the tie, Which had lasted over a century he recognised that the change was an event of inestimable importance in the Union’s history. General Smuts, proposing the health of General Carter, said his departure closed a great chapter and marked the climax of the great story in which the British army had played a great and heroic part. British officers in the great war were mostly trained in the South African school. The final step had been taken because a profound and fundamental change had come over South Africa. The country was not only united under one strong Government, but races Were under an everlasting and indissoluable pact of peace and friendship. The great word “reconciliation” was written over all the differences of the past. (South Africa had reached its majority as a nation. The change was being made in perfect good faith on both aides. The British Government had dealt most generously with Sooth Africa. It had given the Union fair equipment worth £l,590.000 and military lands and buildings worth over £1,000,000 as a mark of goodwill and perfect trust and asked nothing in return. There was only one stipulation, that the Simon's Town great naval base be adequately defended on the land side. The army had passed away, but the navy remained our bulwark. If the Washington Conference proposals were accepted the British navy would still remain as in the past the most powerful navy in the world. South Africa had the great task of peaceful development without fear of external danger. Such security was a peculiar advantage in a world full of inflammable material. The Union would have to be the main bulwark of civilisation in South Africa and in a modest but real sense it accepted the responsibility. General Carter, replying, said the Union Government knew what was best for the country and the army could leave with a feeling of the utmost confidence.
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Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1921, Page 5
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404HISTORIC OCCASION. Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1921, Page 5
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