Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1943. THE SOUTH AFRICAN VERDICT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1943. THE SOUTH AFRICAN VERDICT.

JJESIDES being a personal I riumph for General Smuts —one lie has earned nobly and well, by enlightened counsel and leadership—the result of the South African general election seems likely to stand as of decisive, importance in the history of that Union, of the British Commonwealth of Nations and of the world of men who are or aspire to be free. The coalition of parties supporting the Avar and led by General Smuts has won 107 seats, while the Opposition total has been reduced to 43. The South African lighting forces have recorded almost a block vote for General. Smuts and his supporters, who now have a majority of 64 in a House of 150 —three times the majority they had in the Parliament lately dissolved. It is indicated, though as yet in incomplete detail, that the defeat of the Opposition is even more sweeping than these figures would indicate. Some of its foremost leaders have been defeated at the polls and an exceptional number of candidates, including politicians of standing and reputation, have forfeited their deposits. It may be hoped that this overwhelming electoral verdict is significant above all. as an indication that old animosities and divisions in South Africa are fading in face of national and international realities, and that an important forward step has been taken in national unity and towards larger possibilities of Empire and international co-operation. It may well prove, as General Smuts has suggested, that South Africa, took its greatest and most effective step towards unity when it entered the present Avar. “Without ini Hiding into questions and affairs of domestic concern to South Africa, it is possible to believe that hopes of a happy future for the Union and its people are contingent upon free co-operation, in the Avar and after the Avar, with its partners of the British ComnionAvealth and Avith all nations prepared to co-operate in making the four freedoms as nearly as possible universal. No living man lias done more than has General Smuts to blaze the trail to progress on these lines. , UpAvards of forty years ago he fought to the end, with his countrymen, in a forlorn hope stand against the forces of the British Empire. But he holds that the old Empire is dead and found its grave in the Boer War, and that “today it is the Avidest system of organised human freedom Avhich has ever existed in history.” With power and faith he points to this achievement as a guide to the Avide extension of organised and safeguarded freedom. ITis countrymen assuredly have made no mistake in strengthening the hands of this great and enlightened veteran statesman by the vote they late] v-recorded.