NATIONAL FLAG.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 172, 22 June 1926, Page 7

NATIONAL FLAG.

SOUTH AFRICAN PROPOSAL. ENDORSED BY LABOUR PARTY. CAPETOWN, June 20. Since Colonel Creswell, the Minister of Defence, has issued his manifesto explaining his • support of the Government’s proposal to introduce a national Hag, excluding the Union Jack, the whole country has been eagerly anitcipating whether the Labour Party would support their leader or not. It was generally recognised that the attitude of the National Council of the Labour Party would spell continuance or otherwise of the pact between the Nationalist and Labour Parties.

Consequently there was the greatest interest in a secret meeting of the council which the Labour members attended. After a lengthy discussion the council carried a resolution expressing the belief that South Africa could best work out its destiny as a member of the British commonwealth of nations; that _ the status' of South Africa requires that the Union should possess its own flag, and that the council feels that such a flag should be of a design which will not remind the peoples of South Africa of past differences between the two white races in this country; it therefore recommends the Government that a national flag be chosen which does not include any leference to the past history of the Dutch and English South Africans; while approving the principle that the Imperial symbol of the Union Jack and a national symbol representing the national status of South Africa should be entirely distinct and must receive equal official recognition, the National Council expresses tho opinion that all steps should be taken to secure by agreement a national flag which will satisfy the great mass of South Africans. The resolution thus endorses Colonel Creswell’s attitude.—Router.