THE SECESSION ISSUE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your issue of August 30th contains matter of great interest to South Africans. With regard to General Hertzog you say "thoughts of secession have no place in his mind but he will not be able to appease his critics unless he is able to assure them on the authority of the Conference that the freedom of a Dominion does include the right of secession." It almost reminds one of Mr. Spenlow and Mr. Jorkins !
However, and this is more serious, you .say that you think the Conference ought to state plainly that freedom undoubt- edly connotes the right of withdrawal from the Empire. I presume you would agree that the freedom to exercise this right of withdrawal should apply all round.
So that, for instance, Natal, which entered the Union of S. Africa on certain conditions, would have constitutionally a right to withdraw from the Union if those conditions should be changed. And so on, for there are many other questions which might be raised.
If the "harmless truth" is to be stated in a formula, it is to be hoped that the terms of the formula will be fairly wide.
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