CAPE FLAG.

Grey River Argus, 22 June 1927, Page 5

CAPE FLAG.

GOVERNMENT DETERMINED. TO PUT BILL THROUGH. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) CAPETOWN, June 20. The Parliamentary battle over the Hag problem has been renewed. General Smuts proposed that an impartial tribunal be set up to consider the mat ter. He declared the temper of the country would become worse if the bill were rushed through at the en? of the session. The Prime Minister said that delay would only make matters worse. Eor years, he said, the Dutch had had no flag. If that wrong were not righted, the country would be brought to a position for which he could not take the responsibility. He would never allow the union Jack to have the dominant position in their national flag. If the sons of England still opposed a national flag, they would have to knuckle under and let the Bill pass. General Smuts said he deplored the Prime Minister’s speech, remarking that it was no use talking of thensovereign independence when embarking on a policy which would shatter existing unify. The Prime Minister described General Smuts’s„ proposal to have the Union Jack "and the old Republican flags as an integral part of the national flag as an insult to the historical feelings of the Dutch South Africans. He was determined to proceed with the Bill at all costs. The Government claimed that the new design, with the Union Jack embodied in the shield and with Republican flags in the centre of the old Holland flag, satisfied moderate English opinion. The Opposition held that it would require a telescope to see the Union Jack.