UNITY OF EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19511, 15 December 1926, Page 13

UNITY OF EMPIRE.

VOICE OF DOMINIONS. STATUS CLEARLY DEFINED. NO DISRUPTION INVOLVED. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. A. and N.Z. CAPETOWN, Dec. 13. General Hertzog, Prime Minister of South Afrcia, received an enthusiastic welcome on his return from his visit to England for the Imperial Conference. Cheering crowds'lined the. streets to greet him. Speaking at a Mayoral reception, he disclaimed any particular personal merit for the decisions reached at the Imperial Conference. The result was, he said, the work of a united Empire, with the soul and spirit of the whole Empire behind it. They stood there as men who had come into their inheritance, in the fullest and most complete measure, not as Boer or Britain, Nationalist or South African Party, but as sons of South Africa. He added that no one could deny that what had been achieved at tho Conference was of the utmost importance, not only to the Dominions, but to the whole Empire itself. No longer, he declared, had lie any fear of the Empire. The Conference had cleared the air. Even the word " Empire " had not escaped being put under the microscope and properly defined. Therefore a tremendous service had been done to the cause of every Dominion, and especially to the cause of the. Empire. All his life, said General Hertzog, he had been a constant antagonist of imperialism and certainly a very lukewarm worshipper of Empire. No wonder he could never consent to a State organism being imposed as a super-State authority, above the sovereign will of the people of any Dominion. That was how_ the Empire was represented to them in the past. But the conference, once and for all, had declared that that conception of the Empire should never apply in future, and that clearly every Dominion, as well as Britain, should in future be a dominant factor. He denied that this doctrine meant the disruption of the Empire. On the contrary, it was, he maintained, the only way by which the continuance of the Empire was assured. The conference had secured the goodwill and the co-operation of the peoples of the Empire as never before. The decisions reached had cut ties that were not real ties of goodwill, but only fictitious ties of allegiance to a Power that was not our superior. General liertzog concluded by saying: "It is no longer necessary to quibble about whether we wish to remain in the Empire or to secede from the Empire. That is a question we shall have to decide according to the dictates of the interests of our own country. If those interests in the years to come were to say that secession would be best, then it is not for you or for me to say that it should not be done."