UNION INTENTION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19918, 21 April 1939, Page 5

UNION INTENTION

SOUTH-WEST AFRICA PLAN POLICE INCORPORATION CAPETOWN EXPLANATION OPPOSITION WARNING (Elec. Tel. Copyright—Unit.fid Press Assn.) (Reed. April 21, noon.) LONDON, April 20. Messages from Capetown correct one dispatched yesterday and explain that the foil) introduced by the South African Minister of Justice, General J. C. Smuts, was for the incbz-pora-tion of the South-West African police in the Union police and not the incorporation of South-West Africa itself with the Union as previously stated.

The Opposition Leader, Dr. R. J. Malan, said that the Government's action suggested the incorporation of South-West Africa as a province, and this would have the gravest international repercussions.

The South African Prime Minister, General J. B. Hertzog, in the course of the second .reading debate on the bill, said: "We will flee from the South-West as soon as from the Union. We will protect the territory as our own nationals."

Gift of Good Government

General Smuts urged that the measure should be regarded as the Union's gift of good government to the South-West.

Dr. Malan, in moving that the bill be read in six months' time, said that amalgamation was contrary to the Union's policy. It was a far-reaching constitutional change at the worst possible time. The Government could have dealt with the situation without revoking the existing rights. The Windhoek correspondent • of The Times says that -fears of a disturbance on Herr Hitler's birthday are receding following an instruction from the leader ot the German community to the Germans to be on their best behaviour.