SOUTH AFRICA’S EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 July 1939, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICA’S EFFORT

BUILDING UP LARGE AIR FORCE. This relatively small nation —the Union of South Africa—is building up lhe largest Air Force outside of the Great Powers: its National Register contains the names of over 600,000 persons, which represents the extraordinary figure of one-third of its white population, and of those, 130.000 are already in training or registered for training, writes Sir lan Fraser in the “Sunday Times." It is designing and preparing to make in its own country all manner of special armaments suitable to its own kind of warfare. In addition, it provides harbours for the British Fleet, and is making its coastal towns “battleship proof.” Is the country behind the Government in all this activity? And would South Africa in fact remain neutral? She is an independent member of the Commonwealth and will decide her own course in her own way, and at her own time. But I have no doubt that the majority feel it is wise for South Africa to be strong at the present time. More than a majority value the British connection: the minority is not pro German. Wai- in Europe, if it occurs, will probably appear to most South Africans to be a threat to freedom. Those Afrikaans-speaking people who are cautious about commitments at present belong to a race that is second to none in the world in its love of freedom.