SOUTH AFRICA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 50, 26 January 1933, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICA.

DEBATE IN ASSEMBLY. CAPETOWN,, Jan. 24. There was unparalleled interest when General Smuts moved in the Union Assembly calling on the Government to resign in order to make way for the formation of a National Government.

General Smuts spoke brilliantly and without recrimination, basing his claim on the national desire for racial peace and the fact that General Hertzog, the Prime Minister, was now carrying out a non-gold policy despite his express pledges’ that he would not remain in office if the Union quitted the gold standard. General Smuts declared his willingness to place the initiative for the formation of a National Government in General Hertzog’s hands. The financial and economic conditions of the Union were so serious that they required a great national effort to retrieve them.

General Hertzog, replying, said that the present Government was fully capable of dealing with all emergencies. His pledge to resign referred only to a voluntary abandonment of gold. His Government must now defend the country against the disastrous consequences of a non-gold policy which General Smuts and his coadjutors had forced on the country. General Hertzog moved an amendment declaring that the House had the fullest confidence in the present Government.

Tlie debate is now likely to take a definite party turn when the House resumes to-morrow. The Government expects a majority of 11 on a division.