EXTRA EDITION. GENERAL SMUTS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 15 September 1921, Page 7

EXTRA EDITION. GENERAL SMUTS

REMARKABLE INTERVIEW

THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

BY CABLE—I'EESS ASSOCIATION—COPYEIGHT Received Sept. 15, 12.25 p.m. CAPETOWN. Sept. 14. The newspaper Volkstein, a Govern-r-ment organ, publishes a remarkable interview by its London correspondent with General Smuts, who declared that he was only half satisfied with the result of the Imperial Conference, but' has hopes for the future, because on such ' occasions one is lucky if he only got five per cent, of his views adopted. General Smuts strongly emphasised the necessity for a settlement of the trouble in Silesia, as well w the abstinence of British statesmen from interference in such international affairs as did not deeply concern them. An end would have to.be put to the stirring in the "witches' cauldron" of Central Eon-ope. The Dominions enjoyed as much sovereignty^ they cared to get. General Smuts referred to the Foreign Office attending to our affairs as an anomaly, which Messrs Hughes, Meighan, and himself had decided to let alorie for the time being, because if , the' idea of the sovereign independence of the Dominions sank into the minds of the people the rest would follow automatically in the course of time. General Smuts concluded by saying that he was glad that he was returning to South Africa, because, as a Boer, he was thoroughly-tired of English customs, which mostly consisted of sports and dancing.