EMPIRE RELATIONS.

Grey River Argus, 29 October 1926, Page 5

EMPIRE RELATIONS.

SOUTH AFRICAN VIEW. Accommodation Expected. (Received October 28 at 9.20 LONDON, October 27. The first sitting was held to-day oi the Inter-Imperial Relations Commit tee under Lord Balfour’s chairmam ship. It has done much to confound tho proposers of Imperial disruption. On the whole the Press here has not given undue prominence to Mr. Hurt r.pg’s early declaration about South Africa’s independent status ceasing to be a matter of dispute, but there iV’e indications that some foreign countries have been given a picture of Mr. Hertzog as the conference’s •’stormj petrel,” intent upon raising insuperable problems. However, the atmosphere at this afternoon's roundtable conversational discussion did not even mildly support such a view. “WE HAVEN’T GOT DQ\\N TO TIN TACKS. “but there is not the slightest reason to expect any -serious trouble wil! arise,’-’ was one Dominion representt'tive’s comment to-nighl. Other assurances were that everything was most happily, and quite in line with Mr. Hcrtzug’s Amsterdam int p rvicA. Indeed a scrutiny of his half a ciozun speeches in Izondon finds the phrase “within the Empire” several times inferable, if not in actual words. Those in clos e touch with official circles share optimism thaj this seemingly thorniest problem of the Conference will not require the use of garden gloves. They are more convinced lha«. Mr. Hertzog seeona thought have more to do with trade than with i.j<ternational diplomacy. Even the Research Committee’s discussions, io-dsi-v revealed -South Africa as the keeiu-ct advocate of Empire exchange ' n llb branches of research calculated help Dominion producers of r-aw mar terials. It is freely said that-, wheth«'. in the Conference Chamber or ihn Committee rooms, the- spirit of th'' other Dominion representatives has done much to assure, the South Afri cans that the sentiment <d' Mr. Hurtzog’s “teiegraaf” interview can be ac commodated without, straining .th'* bond of unity. It is. understood LORD BALFOUR’S HANDLING of the inter-Imp(?rial Committee been a model of tact. Mr. Hertzog’s abstention from several social functions- arranged in honour of Dominion visitors has cau-ed the impression to get abroad that he is suffering from political syness an that he prefers the privacy of his hotel Apart from his own ofiicial announcement that he must conserve his health, those- in daily contact with him say that. Mr. Hertzog is the reverse of his impression. He is most genial in the Conference room and is most affable in debate. Nevertheless Mr Hertzog is. a man wrestling with a difficult situation. His intimate friends declare that he is in duty bound to say something to

THE BACK VELDTERS hut even they ktjow, as he does, which hand feeds them by trade, and recognise what a force the Empire is in creating and protetcing- their markets. Well-informed observers suggest that the extreme African opinion can be mot by the Union’s right to conclude its own commercial treaties and by a wider, use of Commercial Commissioners in foreign countries. It is suggested that Mr. Hortzog will no t Und his co-Donunioiis hostile to reasonable aspirations in this di lection if they do not clash w|th the principles of Empire preference