SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 53

SOUTH AFRICAN AFFAIRS

WITHDRAWAL OF FLAG BILL. % THE UNION JACK ASSAILED. CAPETOWN, May 25. After a trenchant debate lasting six hours, the Assembly, on ths- motion of the Prime Minister, General Hertzog, agreed to an adjournment of the debate on the Flag Bill on the unflerstanding that the Bill will be introduced next year, and will not embody the Union Jack. Dr Malan urged that they should have a flag for the future, and not for the past. Rightly or wrongly, the Union Jack stood for domination and conquest. The Vierklenr stood not for what was dead but ter what was enshrined in the hearts of the people. General Smuts insisted on the flag being acceptable to all sections of the people, and condemned as hurtful the Minister’s description of the Union Jack. Neither the Union f ack nor the Yierkleur should be the cause of bitterness. He forecasted that if Another attempt was made to force the flag on the country they would have a worse disaster than that which now prevailed. Mr F. H. P. Creswell (Minister of Labour), claiming to speak on behalf of the great majority of the Labour Party, agreed to the exclusion of the Union Jack on the around that the flag of a country should be the symbol of unity and not of rancours in the past. The Prime Minister deplored the vituperative speeches. He said he was anxious that the Dutch-speaking section

should respect the Union Jack only as the flag of a great country. In every difficulty the flag now divided the people, and he knew he could find a way out of it once they got away from the political atmosphere.

It is understood that meetings of protest against the exclusion of the Union Jack will be continued.

REORGANISATION OF SENATE. CAPETOWN, May 25. The Government has introduced a Bill governing the constitution of the Senate. The Bill provides that nominated members shall cease to hold office in the case of a dissolution or when a Government goes out of office. It also abolishes the joint session, except when the Senate rejects a Finance Bill. In that case a joint session will be held during the same session of Parliament, instead of in the following session as at present. In other cases of differences between the two Houses no joint session will be held, but if the Bill is again passed bv the Assembly in the following yea: it becomes law.