IMPERIAL ROUTE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 May 1940, Page 3

IMPERIAL ROUTE

SOUTH AFRICA ON GUARD

CONTRIBUTION TO WAR.

WINNING WARM FRIENDSHIP.

Britain has a queer way of winning over to warm friendship those who have fought against her. said a writer in the "Sunday Times" recently. I remember during The last war talking with Arthur Lynch, that gifted Irishman who fought with the Boers against us at, the beginning of the century, was tried for treason and sentenced to death, was pardoned, and became a popular member of the House of Commons. and later served as a colonel in the British Army in the war of 1914-18.

His prototype lodaj' is Colonel Deneys Reitz, South Africa’s Minister of Native Affairs, who also fought against us in the Boer War. He went into voluntary exile rather than live under British rule returned to his country when it was given self-government, is now one of the warmest supporters of the Commonwealth, and is in England as South Africa’s representative at the discussions between British and Dominion Ministers to co-ordinate the Empire war effort.

Colonel Reitz is living laborious days, struggling with a programme which taxes even his dynamic energy. I talked with him at South Africa House, overlooking Trafalgar Square, in the very brief interval between a hurried meal and still another of the many conferences in Whitehall. “WE HAVE SECURITY.” "You at least have no doubts about the reality of South Africa’s independent status?" I asked him. ’ "Independence?" was his reply. "We have more than that. We have security—a security which could not have been ours were we by ourselves. "Make no mistake about that. We occupy a vital strategic space between the two hemispheres, as it were, a land with tremendous mineral wealth. In a world given over more and more to aggression—look at the news from Finland—we should have been gobbled up long ago had it not been for our membership of the Commonwealth." Colonel Reitz spoke warmly of his reception in Britain, of the feeling of complete confidence between the various members of the Commonwealth, of the unity of purpose, and of the conviction of ultimate victory.

“I am glad," he said, “to have this additional opportunity of defining the attitude of South Africa because I sense that in some quarters there is still a doubt whether the Union is wholeheartedly with the rest of the Empire in this war. There would be no greater mistake. "But you must remember that we are a young nation, still subject to growing pains. The State of -English speaking and Afrikaans-speaking citizens whom we are gradually knitting into one race of South Africans has some way to go before wo reach the stage which you have achieved in this country, with centuries of ordered | history behind you. “RACIAL ISSUE IS DEAD.” "But we are doing it. The racial issue is dead, except for a dwindling minority represented by the extreme Malanities. It played no part- in the dispute which led to the resignation ol General Hertzog and the appointment of General Smuts to the Prime Ministership. General Hertzog is no less friendly to this country and to the Imperial connection than before, and you will have read that an alliance between his party and the Malanities now seems less likely because he and Mr. Havenga refuse to revive the racial issue and to accept Republicanism and severance from the Empire as part of their political creed. "I admit that the neutrality motion which led to the split was a staggering blow, but the proof of the reality and vitality of the new union of peoples which wo arc building up is the fact that wo have triumphantly survived it, and that more and more South Africa is preparing wholeheartedly to lake her full and proper part in the present struggle. “General Hertzog is a great and deservedly respected figure in South Africa. We who have followed him for so many years regret that bn this occasion he decided on a course so divorced from the feeling of the majority of his fellow-citizens. It is only a minority for whom he speaks now. but I venture to think that many even of those have followed him mainly out of personal loyalty and not because in their hearts they disagree with the standpoint of the rest of us. NEUTRALITY IMPOSSIBLE. "How could we remain neutral? Europe is GOOO miles away from South Africa, and the war might have seemed remote enough when that neutrality resolution was introduced. But what has happened since should have convinced the most determined isolationist. "One of the most recent German raids on shipping was almost, off our own coasts, within a few hours of our own ports. Today the lighthouses round our own coasts are extinguished. That at Capetown has for 115 years swept its beams round the bay. Today it is in darkness.” Colonel Reitz motioned with his hand to the darkened windows of his room. "The fringe of the black-out has extended over those GOOO miles to. Capetown itself. Is it possoble for us to be neutral?

••Just what part South Africa and South Africans will take in the common effort must depend on how the war develops. Our Government is pledged not to send forces overseas, but we are building up our Air Force and Army as rapidly as wo can. and. as the Deputy Adjutant-General to the Defence Force announced the other day. if the war is confined to Europe if no danger threatens the Union, and Britain is in need of further mon from the Dominions, it is incredible that South Africans who wish to volunteer for service overseas would be held in their country against their will. "At first sight this might appear to indicate limited participation, but there are throe factors to which 1 would like to draw attention. The first is that we help the common purpose by undertaking complete responsibility, apart from that borne by the Royal Navy, for our own defence. We are a small nation of little more than 2,000.000 with a large country and 8.000,000 natives in our charge, and a huge coastline. Our own defence is our first consideration. ON AN IMPORTANT ROUTE. ‘•Secondly,, South Africa is situated on what is, next to the Mediterranean, the most important Empire route. On that route South Africa stands guard against any or all comers. We have! undertaken ourselves the defence of

Simons Town, a supremely important base for the Navy. • '■Thirdly, there are other Empire territories to the north of us —the Rhodesias, Tanganyika, Uganda and the rest—more thinly populated than ourselves, less able to defend themselves. To the defence equally of these South Africa is pledged to her last man and her last gun should the war ever come to Africa. •■These, I suggest, are no mean responsibilities .and no small contribution to the effort of the* Commonwealth." Our talk closed with a final emphatic warning that people in this country should not. mistake the significance of any division of feeling in the Union. "We tend to be like the proverbial Irishmen—always 'agin the Government,' even when it is a Government of ourselves. We 'hive oil" among ourselves. But beneath all that, we arc united in a love for. and belief in. our own country, and in the elfort we are making to breed a united people. "The traditional back-veldt is a thing of the past. The motor-car and radio have annihilated space and brought veldt and town togcher in the same way of thinking. That is where Germany has made a great mistake. It there is still a tiny anti-British tinge in the dying embers of racialism it most emphatically is not pro-Gcrman. Wc have no illusions on that point. Wc know what would happen to us under German domination."