General Smuts's defence is very much more effective than the
wording of the Indemnity Aot. He showed himself willing to take full responsibility for his acts, and showed also true firmness and courage. Undoubtedly General Botha and he did save the country from a great disaster. That it might have been saved in a more legal and legitimate manner is, we think, true; but with the great risks that exist Ma communitylike that of the Union, we do not suppose that General Smnta's fellow-citizens will feel greatly concerned over this point. At any rate, if a democratio Assembly are willing, after full explanation, to condone his acts by the most formal means in their power— an Act of Indemnity—there is nothing more to be said here. We are not democrats of the kind who hold that the people have only got the power to do what is judged to be right by a certain school of Jacobin or Radical opinion.
