SOUTH AFRICA'S PART

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23661, 21 May 1940, Page 6

SOUTH AFRICA'S PART

That South Africa will play its full part as a unit of the Allied opposition to Nazi-German attempts to dominate the world cannot be doubted. The tumultuous welcome given to General Smuts at Pretoria —described by him as the greatest reception he has ever had in his life—was plainly an endorsement of the stand he has taken 'against those hesitating to commit themselves and the Union to whole-hearted support of the Allies' campaign. This stand was bold and downright. He staked upon it every interest and hope he had in South African politics. Fortunately for his country and the rest of the Empire, he had a sufficient parliamentary majority to enable him to win sole possession of the reins of office, and in the months that have followed both the British and the Africander elements in the Union's composite population have rallied behind him. Recent events in Europe have created a widespread realisation that his judgment and determination were profoundly right; the acclaim greeting him at Pretoria is proof that the most recent of all, Germany's abominable treatment of Holland, has fired Dutch blood in the Union with enthusiasm for the cause he has consistently served. His words, "Neutrality is dead—it has proved a snare and a delusion," ring out as a rallying cry against the despoilers of a Fatherland, and against any in South Africa still disposed to think neutrality a virtue. It is a tonic for the times to learn from him that South Africa is now preparing to participate in the actual conflict. Once more Britain will reap a rich reward from the liberal policy—direct antithesis of Nazi doctrine and practice—that won Dutch South Africa's allegiance after the last Boer War.