DOMINION’S POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23704, 11 January 1939, Page 10

DOMINION’S POLICY

VISITOR DECLINES TO COMMENT “ ENTIRELY AN INTERNAL MATTER ” (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, Jan. 10. Asked for an opinion on the Government’s financial policy Mr B. O. Schouegevel, a London visitor who is touring New Zealand, said that at the moment he would rather not comment on that. New Zealand was an independent State bearing allegiance to the King. Its people had complete autonomy, and the political situation was therefore entirely an internal matter which the people themselves had to settle.

Mr Schouegevel said he had a tremendous admiration for Lord Bledisloe, with whom he had served on more than one committee. No country had a greater champion in Lord Bledisloe than New Zealand, and he never omitted when he made any public statement to impress on his hearers .the beauties, of the country. Of all the dominions represented in London, Mr Schouegevel added, none put up a better display of wares than New Zealand. The Dominion’s window display in the Strand was the best in England. Mr Schouegevel is chairman of the executive committee of the Empire Unity League, and New Zealand is the onlv part of the British Empire he has not previously visited. He is of Dutch parentage, hut ran away from school to fight in the Boer War on the side of the British again General Smuts and General Botha. Badly wounded, he was the youngest soldier to wear the Queen’s Boer War Medal. In the Great War he helped to conquer the German colonies in Africa, and later led General Smuts’s party in the Cape Provincial House. Mr Schouegevel is the only man to have received both the then Prince of Wales and also the Duke of Kent in his position as Mayor of Royal Borough of King Williamstown, South Africa. He retired from political life about five years ago. He visited Australia before coming to New Zealand.