General Smuts, who led the Opposition, appealed for the postponement
. of the Bill on the ground that the exclusion of the Union Jack would raise far-reaching national issues going far beyond the politics of the day. The proposed flag, he said, could not be honoured and accepted by South Africa as a whole and its effect there- fore would be " to divide the people." The Labour wing of the Government, led by Colonel Creswell, was put into a very difficult position. If it voted against the Bill it might, as the Times correspondent says, hardly survive as a political party, but if it voted for the Bill it would be doing violence to the well-known opinions of many of the Labour members. Outside Parliament the Labour Party appealed earnestly to General Hertzog to postpone the measure, and there were rumours that if he would not the Government might break up. Evidently the Government had not in the least appre- ciated what a storm would be raised.
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