SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19962, 2 June 1928, Page 11

SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG.

HOISTING OF NEW EMBLEM. DISTURBANCES AT CAPETOWN. Australian Press Association—United Service CAPETOWN, May 31. The booming of guns and the fanfare of trumpets heralded the hoisting of the Union Jack and the new national flag on Government Buildings. The GovernorGeneral, the Earl of Athlone, in a.striking speech, said many people had no reason to love the Union Jack, but they were not there, to peer into the lost shadows of a retreating night. The Union Jack had become their flag. A national flag, born of great traditions, was now entrusted to their charge. The Prime Minister, General Hertzog, speaking in Afrikaans, said the national flag sheltered under its folds equally the flags of the conqueror and conquered, and proclaimed to the world the ultimate impotence of war. General J. C. Smuts appealed to the people to gather round the new flag and to make it a thing for the coming generations to live for, and, if necessary, to die for. Referring to the note of disappointment, he urged the people to remain true to the light. He said: "We cannot afford to go back to hateful controversies and to endanger the new spirit of goodwill." Tiie day was marred in Capetown by thousands of coloured hooligans, led by the prisoners who were released yesterday j who during the lunch hour held up motors, snatched the national flags from their bonnets, and damaged the cars. Women who were carrying miniature flags were molested. The mob joined a procession of coloured Communist's,' headed by a band, who carried bannerettes with the words "Afrikanders, Arise!" and "Down Wjjth the Native Slave Laws!" They were allowed to go through the principal streets. They stoned the police and held up the trams. The police charged them with their batons. The centre of the town is still in a ferment. The ropo was cut and the two flags on the Grahamstown City Hall were taken down during the night, and Union Jacks were hoisted instead. At Durban the buildings are bestrewn with Union Jacks.