FUTURE OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 24 May 1922, Page 5

FUTURE OF SOUTH AFRICA.

GENERAL SMUTS’ SPEECH IN ASSEMBLY. Press Assn—By Tel—Copyright. Capetown, May 22. In the Assembly, during a Budget debate, General Smuts said that but. for the strike revolution the finances would have practically balanced, but the bright spot in the storm is that it is mow possible to reorganise the mining industry on a sound basis. He hoped it would now enter a new era of development. COAL EXPORT PROBLEM. Referring to the coal industry, General Smuts said that unless new outlets for export were provided in the Indian Ocean the industry would be throttled. Negotiations wer e proceeding with the Portuguese delegation to provide such outlets. If they were successful he hoped the coal industry would become one of the greatest in South Africa. It ought ultimately to take the place of the precious metals. The gold industry should be working at full strength by September. The only trouble remaining would be to provide for unskilled, semi-unskilled and hangerson to the industry. The tim e had arrived when he could safely proceed with the programme of railway construction and by this means and irrigation and afforestation works provide for the needs for all the unemployed on hand. INDUSTRIAL POLICY. Dealing with the industrial policy, 'General Smuts said that the old shibboleths of free trade and proteciton were no longer possible. Any vital problem which the country had to face was how to breach the transition from the old South Africa to the new. It was clear that the country could not continue to subsist on mining and agriculture.