A NEW ASPECT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 303, 22 December 1926, Page 7

A NEW ASPECT.

HERTZOG AND EMPIRE. GREATEST FRIEND BRITAIN. FULLEST NATIONAL LIBERTY. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Keceived 11 a.m.) CAPETOWN, December 21. Speaking at Pretoria, General Hertzog emphasised that the Empire Conference had deliberately rejected the idea of an Empire group. The declaration differed from all previous statements on the status of the Dominions by the publicity deliberately given it. There was now nothing to prevent hearty co-operation and the promotion of common interests with the other States of the Empire. The question had been raised as to whom the honour was due for what had been achieved. He paid a warm tribute to the great work of the late General Botha and General Smuts, who both strove for freedom, but that freedom had been achieved because people had willed it, British as well as Dutch. The greatest aim of the Nationalist party had been achieved. Some other aims were now superfluous. He added: "I do not think that because the Union Jack still flies that people are not free. It is for the people to decide what flag shall fly." He repeated that they had secured national liberty to the fullest degree because the great nation which guaranteed that liberty was one of the greatest friends they had to-day and would remain so in the future.