The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1938 SOUTH AFRICA’S “ SMALL VOICE” OF UNITY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21053, 3 June 1938, Page 8

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1938 SOUTH AFRICA’S “ SMALL VOICE” OF UNITY.

Notwithstanding periodical upsets in South Africa in relation to the flags the country should fly on ceremonial occasions, and the text of the national anthem, the pages of the history of that country even before the Union of South Africa demonstrate without question that in forty years South Africa has passed from the extreme of despair to the extreme of hope, buoyed up by confident anticipation of the coming of all those national developments that make for strength and courage in the life of a nation. It is inevitable that occasional misunderstandings will flare up in South Africa, as the processes of harmonising the differences of the people of two races take their course. Under wise leadership, however, South Africa will march on to the attainment of that unity upon which a great nationhood will be raised. 1 lie gradual elimination of racial antagonism was in effect the natural corollary to the miracle of British statesmanship that long years ago laid the foundation of the Union of South Africa. It is interesting therefore io quote, in this connection, the views of that great African leader and Imperial statesman General Smuts: “We are following the better way and we are following it to the great blessing of South Africa. You may take it from me that all over the world thoughtful people have for years looked at South Africa and wondered and said, “Is it not a wonderful thing that in this young country, where English and Dutch have been fighting each other for a century, they have been able to make peace?” Thoughtful people have been watching this great national experiment of ours. In our small way we are setting an example to the rest of the world. We see to-day a world where an ancient civilisation is shaken to its foundations. We, the offspring of that civilisation, are trying our best, and not unsuccessfully, to come together, forgetting ancient wrongs and looking together to the future. It is a matter of encouragement, a matter which inspires hope and faith, that while we are trying this experiment in this country we are also speaking with a small voice to the wide world. It is this striving for mutual understanding that has given thoughtful observers hope and faith in the future, not only of South Africa, but of the world. It is true that in South Africa the voice of unity is small, but it is nevertheless an enduring voice that is trying to tell the world that South Africa is making an experiment in co-operation and they are giving a message of peace and of human fellowship which might be followed and copied by the old mother countries of the old world.