SOUTH AFRICA: That’s That

In South Africa’s Parliament, ardent Nationalist Dr. Daniel François Malan moved that the Union reorganize as a republic outside the British Commonwealth. Last month a weekly partly owned by the Union’s Finance Minister Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr had proposed a republic within the British Commonwealth (TIME, Jan. 17). In the Union Parliament, Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts replied directly to Dr. Malan, indirectly to Minister Hofmeyr. Said Smuts: “I expect nothing from your republic. I have been hearing about this republic for the last 25 years and I don’t take it seriously any more.”