London, Jan. 22.
In a message to Kuruman electors where a bye-election is pending, General Jan Smuts, Prime Minister, dealing with the possibility of the Union remaining neutral in the present war said today: "To me it is clear like daylight that neutrality would have struck the economic interests of this country a fatal blow and, above all, would have been the cause of such a racial conflict as would rent our people completely and for years to come."—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.