GOODWILL VISIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20624, 27 November 1941, Page 3

GOODWILL VISIT

SOUTH AFRICAN M.P. UNION’S WAR EFFORT 120,000 TROOPS RECRUITED (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Tlie remarkable war effort achieved by South Africa in spile of 'deep divisions in the country, was described by Mr. Leslie Blackwell, a member ot the South African Parliament, who lias arrived on a goodwill mission to make contact with the New Zealand Government. Mr. Blackwell, who was in Egypt only- a month ago, said the morale of the South African troops training for the present offensive was very high. A member of the Government party in South Africa, Mr. Blackwell has represented one of the Johannesburg constituencies continuously for the last 26 years. He was sent by the Prime Minister, General J. C. Smuts, to assure the new Australian Government of South Africa’s goodwill and was' instructed, if time permitted, to continue his trip to New Zealand. Mr. Blackwell, who visited the Dominion five years ago, said lie was especially glad to be back at a time when New Zealanders and South Africans were fighting side by side in Libya. Four weeks ago he met. in Egypt the commander of the South African division now fighting so gallantly. While he could not give his name at present, he could say that he was a Boer and that more than half his men had Afrikaans names. Ever since the close of the Abyssinian campaign. South African troops in Egypt had been training! intensively for the present offensive. Their general told him they were in the best of condition and on their toes waiting for the attack they knew was coming.

Huge Industrial Effort

"In spite of the very grave divisions of opinion which exist in South Africa on the war issue and the fact that a very strong and influential section of Afrikaans’ opinion is not only Republican and anti-British but professes to welcome the prospect of a German victory,” he said. "South Africa has recruited over 120,000 men from a white population of 2,000,000, and its industrial war effort is second only to that of Australia. We are making howitzers, armoured cars, bombs up to 5001 b. and are acting generally as a workshop for the Middle East, while our ports are a repair shop for the British fleet.”

Under the inspired leadership of General Smuts the country was well organised and pulling its weight or more than its weight in the common struggle. Asked if he had any specific proposals to place before the New Zealand Government, Mr. Blackwell said he had not, but added that Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the three great southern partners in the British Commonwealth saw far too little of each other. That was why the South African Government felt he should extend his visit to New Zealand. Mr. Blackwell added that he had travelled 18.000 miles to reach the Dominion and he had never seen anything more beautiful than the approach to Auckland. On a bright sunny afternoon, the. city, with its harbour and surrounding green fields, made a most attractive picture. Mr. Blackwell will leave for the south this morning and will be in New Zealand for a little over a week.