SECESSION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1930, Page 11

SECESSION

SOUTH AFRICA'S RIGHT

CAPE TOWN, 20th May!

There was a remarkable debato tonight in the Assembly, arising from General Hertzog's motion approving, in principle, the recommendations Of the Imperial Conference Committee's report on the operation of Dominion legislation. ■ • . The debato centred on General Smuts's interpretation of the Committee's recommendation requiring the assent of the Dominion, as well as the British Parliament, to any alteration in tho law touching on secession from the Throne.

General Smuts welcomed the recommendation as meaning that the door was finally closed upon" secession, whereupon Mr. Havenga, amid 'loud Nationalist cheers, fiercely declared that if General Smuts's interpretation was right he repudiated it, and it would mean that instead of ending it would bo the beginning of secession. The debate developed angrily. Colonel Creswell (Minister for Labour) moved a further amendment, affirming the right of any Dominion to cease to bo a member of the British Commonwealth.

After further long discussion General Hortzog, replying, accepted Cclonel Crc-swell's amendment, and said ho would take it to tho Imperial Conferonce, for if tho clause closed the legal door upon the right of secession he intended to see at the Imperial Conference that that door remained open.