POLITICAL DRAMA

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 October 1939, Page 4

POLITICAL DRAMA

WAR ISSUE in SOUTH AFRICA The South African House of Assem-’ bly has known few more dramatic scenes than that of 4th September, when the Prime Minister, General .1. B. M. Hertzog, was defeated by his first lieutenant, General J. C. Smuts, and sacrificed his leadership in a vain endeavour to commit the Union to qualified neutrality in the war with Germany. Immediately upon Britain’s declaration of war, the Union Cabinet, was called upon to submit a policy to Parliament, and the crisis split it in two. General Hertzog made this known at the first opportunity, and, being unable to speak for the Ministry as a whole, he submitted a policy of his own, which had the support of five of his colleagues. Briefly, this was that South Africa should declare that her existing relations with the belligerent, countries should persist unchanged as if no war were in progress, but nevertheless that, her undertakings to the British Government regarding the Simontown naval base, and her obligations, expressed and implied, as a member of the British Commonwealth and the league of Nations should not be affected. He also proposed that no one should be permitted to use Union territory for the purpose of doing anything which might impair the Union’s relations with the rest of the Commonwealth. General Smuts countered with a declaration that the independence of the Union was at stake in the conflict, and by 80' votes to 67 the House adopted an amendment moved by him that relations with the German Reich be severed and that the Union should continue co-operation with the Empire and take all necessary steps for the defence of its territory and interests. General Hertzog promptly resigned, and a new Government was thereupon formed by General Smuts. “The speech by General Hertzog this morning was a magnificent feat of oratory,” wrote T. C. Robertson, political correspondent of the. “Rand Daily Mail.” “In my 15 years’ experience of listening to him 1 have never heard General Hertzog make a more inspired appeal. There was a stage in his address when I felt that it would require a superhuman effort by General Smuts to carry the day. “There was magnificent drama in the clash of these tw'o great South Africans. But then General Hertzog, for some unaccountable reason, made the most vital mistake of his career. He started on a justification of Herr Hitler and his ideals. He went further, and compared his own struggle with that of the Fuehrer. “I saw the faces of his supporters drop suddenly. While there was a good case to be made for South African Nationalism, the fight for the justification of German Nationalism, in the : lost brutal and aggressive form the world has ever known, was meeting with no response. From being a South African patriot, the Prime Minister became an apologist for Nazism.”

THE UNION’S INDEPENDENCE In the course of his speech, General Hertzog declared his unshakable devotion to the principle that South Africa should not be plunged into wav unless her own interests demanded it. She should not buy Britain’s goodwill at the cost of her independence. The present dispute was one with which she had nothing to do and regarding which she. had no obligations. The policy he proposed would enable South Africa to keep out of the war and yet fulfil her obligations to the British Commonwealth. Among other things she would be able to resist any attack which might be made upon Simonstown.

General Smuts. addressing the House, said he had -wished to preserve the political co-operation of the past six years and more, but the questions now raised went to the very foundations of the national life.

“The position we take up,” he continued, “is this: that it would be wrong, and it would be fatal, for this country not to sever relations with Germany at this stage. We think it would be wrong and it would be fatal for this country to consider Germany as a friend and to continue as if nothing had happened in the world. “The question of our active participation in the war is a different matter. The situation in South Africa may be such —and I am afraid it is going to be such—that our active participation in the measure and degree of the last Great War will be very difficult. We shall have to look after our interests in this country, and probably that will engage all the resources and effort of which we are capable.” ■ The Prime Minister, General Smuts continued, wanted to be a friend, but to temper his friendship with acts which no hostile Power would ever recognise as legal or proper. No nation in the world —certainly not Germany —would be under any obligation to respect such modified neutrality. Was it not far better to adopt a clear-cut line recognised by international law and usage, that of severing relations with Germany and regarding her as an enemy?

I The re-shaping of British policy was I not merely an affair of Danzig and the Corridor; it was opposition to a new force by which Germany was out to dominate the world. “What about this country?” General Sjuuts went on. “You notice that the next demand after Danzig has been wiped off the slate is going to be the return of the German colonies. As far as South Africa and its special interests are concerned, the question we have to face is what our position will be when we are treated as Austria and Czechoslovakia have been treated and as Poland is now being treated —when we are faced with a superior force and have to surrender what we consider vital at the point of the bayonet. “Nothing would be more fatal for' this country, poor as it is in defence, and rich as it is in resources, than to dissociate itself, directly or indirectly. from its friends in the Commonwealth. It is not only a question of the loyalty and self-respect which I assume we all feel deeply. If we dissociate ourselves deliberately and conspicuously from the line of action tak-i on by the other members of the Commonwealth, we are going to get whati we deserve, and the day will come — and it will not be far off —when the same treatment will be applied to us. j And when the day of trouble comes and it is bound to come as surely as I we are seated here —when the German | demand for the return of South-West i Africa is made at the point of the bayonet, we will stand alone.”