KNOW YOUR COMMONWEALTH

[Music] l [Music] 300 years ago the Dutch came to South Africa their trading company ruled the fertile districts of the Cape of par and constancia they built white farmhouses in the cape modeled on their homes in the Netherlands in a great Trek they pushed northwards to farm the high felt and the kuu the English settled in the South the two old races flourished on the new soil each keeping their own [Music] tradition gold was discovered on the vitv rant and now our mines are among the richest in the world we mined gold and diamonds and rare metal Chrome is being mined here essential for war and peaceful [Music] industry this is a land of contrasts contrasts in ways of farming of living of worshipping of trading and of transport [Music] after much Strife we had peace between our three main races Dutch British [Music] B we had a land where women flail the crops as African women have always done and yet a land where we've used science and education to get the best out of our soil Fort Cox's College taught the natives Agriculture and trained them to be scientific [Music] Farmers we had our universities and schools as the basis for our democracy above all we had [Music] peace the Marine Road around the cape skirts the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean the Antarctic lies to the South and the huge African continent to the north Europe is 6,000 M away that seemed a long safe distance in the last days of [Music] Peace September 1939 the British government declared war as a Dominion we weren't Bound by their declaration we had to decide for ourselves our people in our Parliament our cabinet split general smutz led the debate for 2 days on the 6th September we decided we decided in full responsibility as a free and Sovereign Dominion now we had to back our decision our ancestors had fought for our freedom in the past and the felt now we were fighting as a United Nation with the help of the British admiralty we built up a Navy to defend our Coastline a coastline of 3,000 miles which became vitally important when the Mediterranean was impossible as important as it had been in the 15th century when for the Portuguese traders the way round the Cape was the only route to India on the far [Music] East young South Africans English and africanas joined the air force the British government lent us RAF experts to teach radio location and Gunnery British Pilots helped our air training scheme which the union government founded early in the [Music] wall for a mechanized War we need drivers but there are difficulties when an African who may never have worn on a boot before learns to drive Army fashion his feet cased in army boots have no sense of feel he has to acquire this to feel his clutch and accelerator the gears have to be taught not as first second third and fourth but as the elephant gear slow very powerful the ox gear the donkey gear and the gear of the racehorse he runs fastest but can't pull a load perhaps he's never seen a city this astonishing Contraption teaches him how to pass another lry on the road models show him streets traffic signs and Crossroads then he goes out for the first time and it all becomes [Music] real the spring box are on the March United despite the efforts of Nazi propaganda to split the English from the Dutch they marched to madesu and elwak and helped to drive the fascists out of abisinia they were in Eritrea Libya and Tunis and they are still marching they all fought well this is General Dan P one of South Africa's Heroes later he was killed in an aircraft he and Sergeant Quenton SMI whom he's decorating with the VC stand for many brave [Music] men for nearly 3 years the spring box fought along the northern deserts today those who come back to us on leave find many things changed the long-term plan for industry has been speeded up we were building this great Foundry for peacetime industry with the war we finished it in record time and now it's making steel for war transport and armored cards and in this common danger we've also learned something learned to live and work together blacks and whites men and women are working in our ammunition [Music] factories together whatever our Creed and whatever our race we who want liberty for ourselves are making guns for the war and plowshares for the peaceful cultivation of our country for warn peace to us both mean Farming Farming for Maze and soy beans fruit and tobacco cting our mes to the threshing [Music] ground growing fruit we use a new discovery for fumigating the trees against [Music] pests [Music] our produce goes by Road and Railway to the ports to Durban and Port Elizabeth to East London and Cape Town the products of our fields and factories go south for shipment abroad for the long Voyage to another hemisphere whose future we have made our concern new docks have been built and old ones enlarged for we are not producing in for ourselves alone but for the armies in Africa and Russia in Europe and the Middle East we're sending butter and Meat and Fish to our troops and allies we're sending grain products bombs lotes and weapons of [Music] war [Music] and we are sending our men they're going because wherever free men are threatened South Africa is threatened [Music] also you boats hunt in our Waters too and our Naval forces and Coastal command protect the convoys as they start out on their 6,000m Journey it is four years now since General smutz first spoke to us of this war but we remember his words we as a young nation whose freedom is new and infinitely precious pay that tribute to the principles through which we gained our freedom and our nationhood so that we may still live our lives as we ordained and still direct our Destinies according to the common will of the people we shall still remember these words when we returned to the farms and factories the Plains and high mountains of South Africa at [Music] peace