A LIVE ISSUE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 120, 25 May 1927, Page 8

A LIVE ISSUE

SOUTH AFRICA'S FLAG

FATE, OF UNION JACK ?-SILL STRONGLY OPPOSED (Unit»d Fhm AMOCtationi-Copyright.) ■ : ~-. CAPETOWN, 23rd May. ■' ■ interest in the second reading of the Hag Bill is unprecedented, .every eor-ner'-of the gallery being filled. Dr. Malan, Minister of the Interior, in;wcplaining the Bill, first dealt with the.? nationality clauses, which re- . quired three years' residence, emphasis-ing-that every South African must be British, but-not every Briton need be a';iSJanth African, a point which the i Opposition emphasised meant the disfranehisement of a numbisr of Britis*l subjects. l>j. Malan challenged the Opposition I to'same a single free and independent nafion without its own national flag. The Opposition retorted by naming Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. tVI DOMINIONS DIFPEB. Bjf, Malan replied that what was poßsible in Australia and New Zealand ' was' Hot necessarily possible in South ' Africa. Those Dominions had an altogether different, history. "In most of theTother Dominions," Dr. MaJan declared, "the Union Jack stands for constitutional development. In South Africa? the Union Jack stands for conquest." If the Union Jack were included in the Irish flag, he" said, dis-. unifcn would have continued. Concluding, Dr. Malan ,said: "I. cannot forget that our independent status could not have been accomplished without the full approval of British statesmen. When the Union Jack flies on certain days, denoting the link with the British Commonwealth, it will fly with th&^eonsent, of Dutch and British ' people.". ■ ' - APPEAL TO PREMIER. .-Sir Thomas Smartt, who led the Opposition, roused the Houso by declar- , ine'that every argument against the re- ' tejmon of the Union Jack could at some future period be used against the retention of the English language. He pledged the English people's loyalty to a flag combining the Union Jack with thVtild Bepnblican flags. The Dutch • aiwf'English, who established an 1m- • perishable record in the Great War unSer the Union "Jack, were now entitled to live under it. He appealed to-General Hertzog, the Prime Ministely>to put the- good of the country before party. ■ TMCr'. Hay,XLabour member, who defttsted General Smuts at Pretoria, denoraced the" proposed flag referendum agViloaded dice."