Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III Special session of Parliament?General Botha’s great speech ?On honour and dishonour?Hertzog’s extraordinary attitude ? General Smuts’ smashing reply ? Result of the voting. The scene next shifts to Capetown, where the special session of Parliament opened on September 9. It was memorable from the fact that it was a special war session, that it marked the first public appearance in South Africa of Lord Buxton (who had succeeded Lord Gladstone as Governor-General), and that the Premier, General Botha, made a speech which, considering all the circumstances of the case, is as remarkable as anything the war has produced in the shape of support to the British cause. Consider, twelve years previously this same General Botha was in arms against the British, and now the duty and the responsibility were cast upon him of declaring the readiness of himself and his compatriots to take up arms on behalf of their former foes. General Botha knew better than most that such an attitude on the part of the Government would not be received with enthusiasm by a section of the South African Dutch, and he also must have been aware that it would meet with active opposition in certain quarters. Yet he never flinched from the path he and his colleagues in the Cabinet evidently had mapped out for themselves from the first. His speech is such a manly epitome of the sentiments of the loyal section of his followers, and had such momentous consequences in bringing the Dutch to the crucial parting of the ways, that it must be given in full:
As Prime Minister, he moved: ‘ This House, duly recognizing the obligation of the Union as a portion of the British Empire, respectfully requests His Excellency the Governor-General to convey a humble address to His Majesty the King, assuring him of its l…
