FREEDOM OF BOERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 15, 18 January 1936, Page 13

FREEDOM OF BOERS

Smuts Praises Britain

The Boers had less freedom under , the old Republic than they have to-day • as a free partner of the British Com- ! mouwealth of Nati ns, according to General Jan Cliri.-rian Smuts, in a recent speech at Kisteuberg. With him an the platform was Mr Piet G. W. Grobler, Minister of Native Affairs. Mr Grobler is a nephew' of Paul Kruger, the last President of the ‘'free’ Transvaal Republic. Speaking of South Africa’s constitutional development. General Smuts assured his English friends that there was nothing to b e alarmed about. The cause cf Commonwealth co-operation was m no way set back by the greater freedom now enjoyed by the Dominions. The old legal bunds had given way to bunds of friendship. No other country in the world, he declared, would have allowed a conquered country such freedom as South Africa enjoyed. He took off hos hat to British Statesmanship for what had been freely given in the Status Acts The magnanimity of the British Government bound South Africa more closely to Britain than any legal bonds could have bound Friendshp with Great Britain would be maintained, the General continued. The position now was as dangerous as

it was in 1914. Tn such circ’J»istnnf«s ! it was necessary to have friends. i South Africa had the article which all countries wanted in a time of gold hunger. Gold was the most necessary commodity for the economic, recovery of the world, South Africa had that commidity. In such circumstances tried friends must not be sacrificed, General Smuts said. This made it abundantly clear, he argued, that Dr F. S. Malan (leader ot th e old Nationalist Party) and his friends, who were striving after a republic separated from Great Britain, were on the wrong road. That road did not lead to friendly co-operation with Britain. Dr Malan and his friends, General Smuts continued, should take a lesson from France, which was prepared to go to any length to hold the friendship oi Great Britain. “We speak from experience,” General Smuts said. “We had a republic before, and Mr Grobler and I, who served under it, know that we had less freedom under it than we now enjoy. We could not then deal with the Asiatic question, and we can now. In a national sense we have greater sovereign rights now than we had in the Republic. We are now masters of our own fate and destiny. We should show ourselves worthy of our high estate.”