UNION DAY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 1 June 1928, Page 9

UNION DAY

INAUGURATION CEREMONY.

APPEALS FOR UNITY. TROUBLE IN CAPETOWN (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COP YKIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Received 12.5 p.m. to-day. CAPETOWN, May 31. The booming of guns: and a fanfare of trumpets heralded the hoisting of the Union Jack and the national flags on the Government buildings. The' Governor-General, in a. striking speech said that many had no reason to love the Union, Jack, but they were not here to peer into the lost shadows of retreating night. The Union Jack had now become their flag. The. national flag was born of great traditions entrusted their charge. General Hertzog speaking in Afrikaans, said that the national flag was sheltering its bosom equally the flags of the conqueror and the conquered. It proclaimed to the world the ultimate impotence of war. General Smuts appealed to the people to gather round the new flag, to make it a thing for the coming generations to live• for, if necessary to die for. Referring to the note of disappointment. he urged the people to remain true for the light. “We cannot, afford to go back to hateful controversies and endanger the new spirit of good will,” he said. The day was marred at Capetown. Thousands of coloured imoligans, led by yesterday’s released prisoners, during lunch hour held up motors and snatched the national flags from the bonnets and damaged the cars. Women carrying minature flags were molested. Tho mob joined a. processi on of coloured Communists headed by a band carrying a bannerette on which was inscribed “Afrikanders arise and down with native slave laws.” It passed through the principal streets, stoned the police and held up the trams. The police charged with batons. The centre of the town is still in a ferment. The rope of two flags at Grahamstown City Hall was cut during the night and Union Jacks hoisted. Durban buildings are bestrewn with Union Jacks.