SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG BATTLE RENEWED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18188, 22 June 1927, Page 11

SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG BATTLE RENEWED.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright Aus. and N.Z. Cable Association. CAPE TOWN, June 20. The Parliamentary’ battle over the flag problem has been renewed. General Smuts proposed that an impartial tribunal be set up to consider the matter, declaring that the temper of the country would become worse if the Bill were rushed through at the end of the session. The Prime Minister said the delay would make matters worse. For years the Dutch had had no flag. If that wrong were not righted the country would be brought to a position for which he could not take the responsibility'. lie would never allow the Union Jack to have the dominant position in the national flag. If the Sons of England still opposed a national flag they would have to knuckle under and let the Bill pass. General Smuts deplored the Prime Minister’s speech, remarking that it was no use talking of sovereign independence when embarking on a policy which would shatter the existing unity'. The Prime Minister described General Smuts’s proposal to have the Union Jack and the old Republican flags as an integral part of the national flag, as an insult to the historical feelings of Dutch South Africans. He was determined to proceed with the Bill at all costs.

The Government claimed that the new design with the Union Jack embodied in a shield with the Republican flags in the centre of the old Holland flag satisfied moderate English opinion. The Opposition held that it would require a telescope to see the Union Jack. •