SMUTS AS LEADER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1940, Page 4

SMUTS AS LEADER

SUPPORTED BY STABLE MAJORITY

UNDIMMED CONFIDENCE IN VICTORY.

LONDON NEWSPAPER’S TRIBUTE.

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 2. The “Daily Telegraph,” commenting on the defeat of General llertzog’s peace resolution in the Union Parliament, says the division shows that the majority which supported General Smuts last September on the question of continuing co-operation with the British Commonwealth remains stable after a year of war. “Not all the successful aggression, not even the collapse of France, have served to weaken it,” says the paper. “That is a very signal fact and constitutes a great tribute to the influence of General Smuts with the people of the Union.

“It would not be easy to over-esti-mate how much not only South Africa but the cause of human freedom owes to the staunchness of the faith and vision of General Smuts, whose confidence in peace, with victory remains undimmed —a confidence sustained by the gallantry and efficiency of the South African Air Force now serving in Kenya. “It is not merely a nice calculation of chances which provides the justification for General Smuts’s policy. It is a clear perception of the consequences of making peace with Germany. He sees that such a peace would inevitably mean the linking of South Africa with Germany, thereby submitting to Nazi dominance. General Smuts declares he would rather a thousand times be with England than with Germany. Such a choice should need little recommendation to any people nurtured in freedom.