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Smuts Voices Opposition to Boycott

June 17, 1936
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General Jan C. Smuts, Minister of Justice, well known as a friend of the Jews, has come out in opposition to the anti-Nazi boycott, indicating that the Government is investigating to see what legislative steps can be taken to end it.

In an address in the Dominion Assembly, reported by the Cape Town Times, General Smuts declared that the movement for boycotting German goods and services harmed both the country and its instigators, adding that two wrongs did not make a right.

Declaring that the Government strongly disapproved of the boycott movement, he stated that he had attempted to reconcile the Greyshirt Fascist movement with the anti-German section to make them both realize the danger of importing European racial feuds into South Africa, but had failed.

Pointing out that Government legal advisers had been considering the problem, he admitted that the boycott was a difficult thing to ban, but assured the assembly that “this extraordinarily difficult” problem would be tackled.

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