PLEA FROM SMUTS

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 7

PLEA FROM SMUTS

BRITAIN AS PEACEMAKER. PRESS DELEGATES IN AFRICA. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright Rec. 1 a.m. Cape Town, March 22. After a visit of more than six weeks the Imperial Press Union delegates completed their tour of Africa to-day, the last stages embracing Durban, -Basutoland, East London, Port Elizabeth and the famous garden route to Cape Town. The majority of the delegates will embark on the Winchester Castle ,to-day for London, but the New Zealander, Mr. Geddis. embarked on the Ulysses for Australia. The final function was a farewell dinner by the visiting delegates to their hosts. Major Astor presided, and the Governor-General and leading South Africans were present. General Smuts, replying to the toast of South Africa, said that although it was late, it was not too late to bring peace and sanity tq Europe. A great deal had happened in the past few weeks to cause fresh anxiety and rouse further suspicions, but he saw nothing to make them turn back from the great experiment of organising peace. Two years ago Germany was more than pleased to get an army of 300.000 from the Powers; now she had taken double that number without asking. "I am deeply grateful to the British Government for remaining perfectly calm despite what has happened, at Berlin,” added General Smuts. Britain, he said, was the one power left in the Old World with sufficient influence and moral prestige to undertake the task of peacemaker in Europe. He was sure it was not beyond her.