DEFENCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22909, 4 January 1940, Page 3

DEFENCE OF SOUTH AFRICA

REMARKABLE PROGRESS MADE - (BITCTBH OTFIOIAI. WnilllSS.) RUGBY, January 2. A survey of military preparations in South Africa, made officially in the Union, states that the Union's new citizen army is making remarkable progress. Reports from town and country in all quarters of South Africa reflect the enthusiasm with which volunteers are coming forward.

A single example is the Botha Regiment, which Jias risen from a peace-time strength of 400 to a wartime strength of more than 900, and the formation of another battalion of this regiment is in progress. New units are also being formed in such typically rural areas as Messian, Barberton, and Verefiging. A spirit of . cordial co-operation dominates all the activities, the survey continues, and any sectional differences have been set aside. iEverywhere the fact is appreciated that all'are \ South Africans and complete unity is expressed in the common cause. ~.-,_ t The survey says that the lie js given to Nazi propagandist tions that discrimination against Afrikaans-speaking members of the defence force obtains by the fact that by far the larger number .of senior officers permanently serving in South Africa's army are men bearing Afrikaans names and they, like officers bearing English names, are .bilingual. . The anxiety of the native, peoples to participate in the defence of South Africa was expressed at a recent meeting in Pretoria of the Natives' Representative Council, the most important organ of native opinion in the Union. ■ - During the meeting one delegate summed up the position as follows: "Since the war broke out, every African organisation that has -held a meeting has expressed its unswerving devotion to the King and his Government in the Union. An account recently appeared in the press of how native employees of a big concern in. the Transvaal have started a fund to buy a warship for Britain, and this, I am convinced, is typical of what the people throughout the Union are feeling."