IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1888, 16 September 1921, Page 5

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

GENERAL SMUTS' SUMMARY. ;•' ONLY HALF SATISFIED. A. and N.Z. CAPE'; OWN, Sept. 14. The newspaper Volkstem, a Government organ, publishes a remarkable interview given by General Smuts to its London correspondent. General Smuts is reported to have declared that he was only half satisfied with the results of the Imperial Conference, but he hoped for the future, because on such occasions one was lucky if one got only 5 per cent, of one's : views adopted. General Smuts strongly j emphasised the necessity for the settlement of the trouble in Silesia, as well as the abstention of BritisTn statesmen from interference in such ir ternational affairs as did not deeply concern them. An end would have to be put to stirring in the witches' cauldron of Central Europe.

The Dominions enjoyed as much sovereignty as they cared to get The Prime Minister had referred to lira Foreign Office attending to Empire''affairs as an anomaly, but .this Mr. Hughes, Mr. Meighen and himself had decided to let alone for the time being, because if the idea of the soverei'/i independence of the Dominions sank dm," the minds of the people,- the rest would follow automatically in the course of time.

General Smuts concluded by saying that he wag glad he.was returning to South Africa, because as a Boer he was thoroughly tired of English customs, which mostly consisted of sports and dancing.