POLITICAL HAPPINESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1938, Page 5

POLITICAL HAPPINESS

SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER'S VIEW DEMOCRACY NOT THE ONLY SYSTEM. QUESTION OF TRADITION & TEMPERAMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON. November 15. The South African Minister of Defence, Mr O. Pirow, speaking at the South African Club, declared that nothing was more pathetic than the belief that political happiness was impossible except on the basis of democracy as known in the British Dominions. He added that the British system, possibly ■ subject to slight reforms, might be the only one to suit the British temperament, but it was a question of tradition and political temperament. When both were absent the system failed. Mr Pirow said South Africa's attitude in the event of Britain being involved in war would be decided by the people through Parliament on the merits of the case. “I have been told that if that attitude were adopted by the Empire as a whole it would mean the disintegration of the Empire. I reply that it is better to base the existing cordial Commonwealth relations on the facts than on make-believe.” The Berlin correspondent of “The Times” reports that Mr Pirow will arrive there on November 17 and will be received by Herr Hitler. He will also confer with Field-Marshal Goering, Herr von Ribbentrop, Foreign Secretary, Herr Funk, Minister of Economics and General Keitel.