SECESSION CLAUSE
THROWN OVERBOARD IN SOUTH AFRICA NATIONALIST CONGRESS DECISION (Australian Press Association.) Cape Town, September 6. The Nationalist Congress, after much travail, substituted acceptance of the Imperial Conference’s declaration for the secessionist clause in its constitution. The Country delegates failed to_reconcile the recognition of tlie King with independence, and argued that the conditions of the declaration weie a negation of independence, and could not obliterate the words “within the Empire.” . . ' The Minister of Mines (Mr. r. w. Beyers), who is an advocate of the measure, supplied a sugar coating to tlie pill by stating: “We are what is higher than a republic. Me have sovereign independence, giving the inherent right to determine our form of Government.” He asked: “Did the English deny that they were independent because the King was also King of Australia and Canada?”
Tlie result of the last Imperial Conference was the practical concession of independence to the self-governing Dominions, with the proviso of the formal recognition of the King, and tlie promise of continued non-binding consultation. “Every Dominion is now potentially a sovereign independent State.” wrote Professor Edgar 11. Brooks, of the Transvaal University College, Pretoria, recently, “on a footing of perfect formal equality with Great Britain. Wherever restrictions remain, they remain because the particular Dominion concerned has not chosen to abolish them.” The Union of South Africa, on March 29 last, by the unanimous vote of the House of Assembly, accepted the report of the Imperial Conference and all that it implied concerning the constitutional relations between the several Dominions and Britain. The Premier, General Hertzog, in reference to the vital question of neutrality in case of war, said: “To my mind, there can be no reasonable doubt of the right of any member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, in case of war, no matter between what nations, to declare its neutrality, and to have that neutrality internationally respected by ail nations.” __
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19280910.2.82
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 292, 10 September 1928, Page 11
Word Count
319SECESSION CLAUSE Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 292, 10 September 1928, Page 11
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in