EXTRAORDINARY!

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 49, 27 February 1935, Page 11

EXTRAORDINARY!

SOUTH AFRICA'S ENVOYS. A GAME OF DIPLOMACY. JOHANNESBURG, S.A., January 25. South Africa will soon have a diplomatic corps larger than that of any other British Dominion. Of major posts the last to be filled was that of Minister to Germany and Sweden, to which Dr. Gie was appointed. South Africa will have no ambassadors abroad; she is not big enough or influential enough for that. She already has, however, envoys extraordinary and Ministers plenipotentiary in Washington, D.C., The Hague, Berlin, Stockholm, Park, Rome and Lisbon. Those envoys are independent of British Ministers and ambassadors. To spare British sensibilities the South African representative in London does not bear a full-fledged diplomatic title; he is called a high commissioner. Foreign countries have reciprocated blandishments with South Africa only in part. In Capetown there is an honorary Italian Minister and in Pretoria there are an American Minister, a Dutch Minister, a German Charge d'Affaires and a French Charge d'Affaires. The story as to how these appointments originated is rather an amusing one. The initiative came from General J. B. ST. Hertzog, Prime Minister of South Africa as far back as 1927. He wanted to prove to his Dutch Republican and Nationalist supporters that South Africa could do as she liked abroad, in support of the ideal of sovereign independence so dear to the hearts of backveldt Boers. So it was decided to create two legations abroad, one in Washington, D.C., and one in The Hague, Holland. The United States and the Netherlands by diplomatic etiquette had to respond aiid create legations in Pretoria. Then Italy stepped into the picture. Her Consul-General in Capetown was a wealthy man, having married the daughter of a Johannesburg gold mining magnate. He proposed to Mussolini to establish at his own expense an Italian diplomatic post. Mussolini gave his consent. General Hertzog and his Ministers had no millionaire to pay their high installation costs in Rome, but it would have been impolite to show reluctance, so they, too, gave their consent. Count Labia, the new Italian Minister, soon proved he was 110 diplomatic nonentity. He negotiated first a meat contract whereby South African ranchers were to supply the Fascist army with beef and mutton, and secondly a shipping subsidy whereby the South African Government agreed to pay annual cash bonuses to an Italian around-Afriea steamer service.

Germany mid France were furious. Germany hud a special incentive in wishing to protect her settlers in Southwest Africa, once a German colony, now a South African mandate. Germany overnight raised her Consul-General in Johannesburg to the rank of Charge d'Affaires in Pretoria. Consequently there was nothing left to do but complete the game. Fiance appointed a Charge d'Affaires; South Africa appointed Ministers in Berlin and Paris. He of Berlin was accredited to Stockholm as well, he of Paris to Lisbon, Portugal.

Only Holland and Portugal have interests of some importance to safeguard here. Holland founded the country originally; many Dutch citizens live here. Portugal has a big colony on the eastern border of the Transvaal, and her interests in the seaport of Lourenco Marques are vitally linked up with those of Johannesburg and the gold-bearing Witwatersrand.