In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 123, 27 May 1933, Page 10

In the Public Eye

General James Barry ' Muiinik I Hcrtzog, Prime Minister of the new national combination whidh lias come into being, in South Africa and "which won a spectacular victory at the elections, recently had the unique honour for a South African of appearing in the Almanach tie Gotha. The distinction paid to the Prime Minister caused a good deal of pleasurable surprise, irrespective of politics, and the public, black as well as white, was once more trying to make out whether or not General Uertzog was a great man. ' ■ ' • Unlike his rival, Jan Smuts, he has not attained world-wide renown as a founder of the League of Nations and a draughtsman of the treaty of Versailles. Hertgoz has a place in the history of modern nations, but it is' not of a spectacular kind. He is responsible fov the famous declaration, issued by the British, Imperial Conference in 1926, that all the' Dominions arc "free and equal j>artners and in no wise subordinate to the Mother country." Many believe that this was one of the most important diplomatic achievements of our. day, but. owing to the lack of tho glamour that hangs round the romantic career of Smuts, Hertzog; is known, only to a minority in foreign' lands. . ■ '■ .',. ■ Two picturesque descriptions of■' the; Prime Minister of-, the Union have been furnished by two dissimilar writers,' the one an American, the other a German. Isaac F. Mareosson visited Hertzog some years ago and declared: "Put him against the background of a small New, England tqwii and you. would take him. for an American country lawyer." ! And then' Marcosson told how deceptive is his appearance. . \ ' ' Kasimir Edschmidt, German novelist, said, lately: Hertzog resembles an oldfashioned Englishman who has dis>Riiised himself witli spectacles in order to appear harmless." Yet this stooping grcy-moustached man ot sixtyodd, notwithstanding his ordinary appearance, .his inferiority to Smuts as a speaker, his retiring life out of office hours,, is idolised by hundreds of thousands in the land, while Smuts is definitely unpopular, or, to his friends, an enigma.

, Fo|Vnearly a quarter of a century the "two leaders, have ;beea bitter political enemies in Parliament and cordial'friends outside. And the wisest statesmen in' South .Africa ackndwledged that iit was' only the difference: in the personalities of. the" two nien, th~t kept the political divisions alive/ Hertzog became a 'prominent figure; in ,African, affairs more than: thirty years ago, and. still nobody has been; able to ''size, him up.'V" Though he has' always fought.for the rights of the: Dutch people in the land, he is himself of mixed British, Netherlands, and German origin, as Jiis combination of names—James Barry Munnik. Hertzog ;—helps, to prove. . vHe comes front tlic same part of the country as his, great opponent, and, like him^he is a lawyer. As ayoung man he . was; Snpreme Court Judge in the Orange'iJTree, State republic. Like Smuts, . Hertzog . became a cavalry leader, in the Boer war, and his daring campaign through the heart of areas occupied by the-. British gave him fame as a guerilla leader. Kver since he has"carried the title of General. Sir Abe Bailey. ,

, Retirement from all business activities to devote his leisure to public affairs and to writing Ids memoirs is the intention of Sir Abe Bailey, a prominent. South -African, ■■■. as an> nounced , this is^eek, -VSir Abe , Bailey, as politician, sportsman; and Imperialist, is in. the line of thought, of : Cecil Rhodes, and hej Jias always been a prominent figure. •in ■ South Africa, where he owns large interest!?.'' He is a speaker of -considerable cleverness, and though he is navy advancing in years 'he has1 Kot>loet -the ability to hold an audience entranced while he unfolds the- possibilities-of ; some echeme or /other. : He has had a chequered career ia many ways, however. At the time of ithe now famous, Jameson Raid he was'one; of>.the-lead-. era of Uitland thought; and; was one of the leaders who < objected -to i'tho treatment niete'd out' to foreigners by the Boer Government of the day. .For his part in the raid he received; two years' imprisonment,'.but after his release'he became one oil; the leading business men in the country,/which, under President PauhKruger,' had objected to his interference and . desire for freedom of action, and thought. Sir Abe Bailey of recent years has been one of South Africa's leading politicians, as well as. one of its leading business men, representing ithe Transvaal electorate of Krugersdorp in the Union Parliament from 1910". to. 1924, when he was defeated because he sided with the •"" Imperialists ■ against the Afrikanders.. Ho served.... throughout the Boer War, receiving tho> King's and Queen's medal*-1 with1 six clasps, later taking'part in ' mining in the Transvaal, eventually becoming one of the? principal, owners.; .During ;the Great. War, wjien. British troops wore harrying the Germans in East Africa, he-acted as Deputy Assistant Quarter-master-General with ' the Union of South Africa Forces, for which he received, special mention in dispatches. Sir Abe first married Miss Caroline Paddon, in 1894, but. she" died in 1902, leaving him' with a son and. a daughter Nine years afterwards ho married the Hon. Mary Westenra, only daughter jf the fifth Lord Eossmdre, and they iave two' sons and three daughters. Not long ago he made a gift of £100,000 to tho general purposes fund >f the Boyal Institute of International Affairs, an organisation with which tho. Prince of Wales-is associated. Ho was i close friend of Rhodes, just as, later, )f Botha and Smuts. It was for his ielp in relation to tho establishment of ;he Union that he was knighted, receiving his title in 1911 and • being jiven a baronetcy in. 1910.

GENERAL JAN SMUTS.

I The first South' African, to obtain the car of the Wrld for 'decades was General Jan'(Christian Smuts,-who-lias come .togetiie? with General Hertzog to ; form a coalition government a'cd fight a General Election, that has given the country a substantial majority. Inmany ways, the position;in South Africa was like that; which prevailed in New. Zealand; a. minority Government'was ill power supported by the labour Party against its Jiistorie opponents. But the thing which helped to bring about the coalition was the fact that Labour support was withdrawn and that Mr. Tielmann KOos, a brilliant publicist, resigned from the Supreme Court Bench to lc-onter the political field. General Smuts has by gcncial consent been regaided as tho ablest as well as the bc-t known of Dominion statesmen. His distinguishing characteristic is loasonud modelation based on compiehciusivc views and keen realisation of the enoimous perplexity of human' aflaiis. lie is a philosopher as i\ell as ■i politician, and ho bungs to his uork the unusual combination of a wellinstructed philosophical mind and a kern sense of the practical. This South African leader is now 63 ! ye.'irs of age, and h,© began his career with a distinguished record at Stcllenbobch University and a double first in the Law Tripos at Cambridge. He is a Bencher of the Inner Temple, a K.C., si I .Privy Councillor; at 28 he was State Attorney of tho South African Republic, and at 31 he was in supicme command of tho South Afiican Eepublican Foutes in Cape Colony. After the war he cincigcd as Colonial Secretary of 'the Transvaal, and during the world conflict ho pioyidcd evidence of the wisdom of Biitish policy after the Boer War, for ho led British forces in British East Afiiea. He entered tho field of Union politics and became Minister of Mines, and later, fiom 11)10 to 11)20/ Minister of Defence. Foi several years he -was also finance Ministci. Tiom 39J9 to 1924 he was Piime Minister, and he played a distinguished pait in tho po^t-war iccoiistuietiun of Europe and the founding of tho League of • Nations. 'He was South African lepresentativo on the Imperial War Cabinet, and he represented his country at tho Paiis Conference. Mr. A. C. Willis. Mr. Albert C. TVillrs, who is this opponent of Mr. J. T. Lang in the electoral struggle at the Bulli seat, which is full of possibilities for the future of the Labour movement in' New South AVales, is a prominent politician in that State, Mr. Willis returned to • Australia only, a fo\r months ago after a term as Agent-General for New South Wales in London, a post which he took over from Sir George Fuller in April, 1931. It was, of course, Mr. Lang who appointed him, and it was Mr. Willis who acted for Mr. Lang in tho negotiations with tho Dominions Office which followed the disagreement between Mr. Lang* and tip Governor, Sir Philip Game, over tho appointment of new members of the Legislative Council. Mr. Willis was not consideied a friend

of the Stevens Government, and when they reached power tho post of AgentGeneral was abolished and he was recalled. _ Mr. Willis had a picturesque career in industrial and Parliamentary politics in , v New South Wales. After having Jeff his native Wales twenty years ago as a miner to Work in the coalmines of Australia, he later returned, to Britain as direct representative of the country of his adoption. Before leaving Wales, Mr. Willis was a coal-minor, but he developed an occupational eye trouble, and devoted considerable time to local governmental affairs. Ho was an official of the South W.ales Miners' Federation, but in 1910 ho went to Sydney. He soon became a prominent figure in tho mining organisations of -this Statej and after a sojourn in tho South Coast was appointed secretary of the Miners' .Federation on its formation iv 1915. Active participation in industrial affairs eventually led him into politics, and, though, not one'of Mr. Lang's famous twenty-five of '1925, he was . actually appointed to the Upper House by the Labour Premier in that year. He was the leader of tho ; two previous Lang Governments .in that House, and held that- position in the next Administration. Sir Miles Lampson. A great knowledge of- l"ar Eastern affairs and considerable experience in the ways of. Eastern politics arc possessed by Sir /Miles Lampson, the British Minister at Peking, whoso offices '. were obtained as an intermediary in the Sino-Japancso conflict this- week. Sir Miles has been British Minister iv China since 192 C. lie has spent the greater part of his career in tho Par East. When only thieo yeais old in diplomacy he went to Japan with Prince Arthur of Connaught on a ; special mission to confer the Order of the Garter, on the late. Mikado,-:aud was later decorated with the Order of the Rising Stfn. He was afterwards attached -to the diplomatic service in Tokio. He entered the' Foreign Office in 1903 when he was 23 years old, and two years after his Garter -Mission he was Second. Secretary at the Japanese capital. His next, post was in Sofia in 1911, but' in the third year of the Great War ho became -the Acting First Secretary at Peking, and in 1920 he was Acting British nigh Commissioner in Siberia. When the British delegation left for the Washington Arms Conferenco Sir Miles joined it, and he also attended meetings of the Council of the League of .Nations. His wife is also well known in public affairs. She is a daughter of Dame Jessie Phipps, a pioneer woman municipal worker. Alderman of the London County Council and Chairman of tho Education Committee, Sir Miles, who is a nephew of tho'late'Mr. Locker-Lampson and a i. brother of Lady B'uthveu, is a big, genial man, over six ieet in height, and as his wife is also very tall they are an impressive pair. There are one son. and two daughters of the marriage. "