aeneral Smuts defined his policy in an important speech at
Pretoria on Friday, December 3rd. At the coming General Election etouth Africa must decide between freedom within the Empire and secession from the Ereeire, involving a split in the Union, trouble with the natives, and the isolation of the South African Dutch. General Smuts insisted that the war had changed the basis of the Empire. The Dominions were now recognized as free and equal sister-nations of Great Britain within the British Commonwealth. The South African Party, now joined by the Unionist Party, saw in the Commonwealth and the League of Nations a new order of peace and justice, based on free discussion. They did not favour closer union "either in the shape of a Federation with legislative power or in that of an Imperial 'Council with executive power which derogates from the status of the Dominions."
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