SOUTH AFRICA AND IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 31 July 1919, Page 35

SOUTH AFRICA AND IRELAND.

General Hertzog, the leader of South African Nationalists, who has always been opposed to the inclusion of South Africa in the British Empire, was recently, with some fellow-delegates, deputed to place South Africa's demand for autonomy before the Peace Conference (says an exchange). When he came to sail, the seamen of the Durham Castle refused to carry such a political opponent. Then the British Admiral in those waters offered a passage to Hertzog and his comrades on H.M.S. Minerva. The Manchester Guardian applauds the action of the Admiral', saying that if Hertzog's errand is illegal it can be stopped at the proper place, but that South African Nationalists should not be presented with a real grievance by being denied opportunity to cite evidence before the Peace Conference in support, of their claim. The Admiral's action we are invited to admire, as it "is likely to go down to history as an illustration of the character of the British Empire." Could the Manchester Guardian persuade its British Empire friends to give the same facilities to the Sinn Fein leaders in securing access to the Peace Conference as are being given to General Hertzog ? Why should Ireland be treated one way and South Africa another way? We shall be prepared to admire "the character of the British Empire" when the magnanimity it occasionally extends to the remotest dependencies is not withheld from the sister nation at its own doors.