GENERAL SMUTS

Evening Star, Issue 16629, 11 January 1918, Page 7

GENERAL SMUTS

A POWERFUL FIGURE IN LONDON. HELPING TO RUN OUR WAR MACHINE. Have you ever been in South Africa? Have you ever Jain at anchor in Table Bay and looked at the red roofs of Capo Town standing by tho fortress walls of Table Mount? Have you ever felt the soft, warm earth of the veld under your ! feet? Have you ever watched tho ox | waggons winding down a pass, or heard | the moan of the ostrich in the darkness, i or listened to the sudden rush of the tor- j rent over the dry river bed, or smiled at the simple jokes of the country folk? If you have (writes Olga Eacster, of the editorial stall of tho ‘ Cape Times,’ Cape Town, South Africa), you know “ Jannie ” Smuts, as he is affectionately called iii South Africa; “ Jannie,” who was born within 50 miles of Cape Town. You know all about him without being told, for ho is part of the whole scheme of nature and things there—a child of tho land, an intellectual product of the country. ' There is a theory that a man finds his best impetus in the country in which he is born. South Africa can certainly boast of one such great man in General Smuts, Minister of Defence- of the Union of South Africa, member of the Privy Council, Minister of Aerial Defence, and. at the present moment, one of the prominent men of the war. The cables from London tell almost daily of his activities. With the exception of Premier Lloyd George, few members of the British war machine have been more in the public eye during recent weeks. In his personal appearance and career ho may be said to epitomise his country and his race. His early youth was spent very close to Nature indeed, as a shepherd on his father’s farm, and his memory recalls a certain dark night when he was ■carried across the fields to take his place at the head of a team of standing oxen, and hold the rope in his tiny hand. He was put in charge of the geese, too, in those days, and he watched the pigs, and learned the ways and needs of five stock in a manner that has been invaluable to him since. When he was 12 years of -age his father, who was Dutch and a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Capo of Good Hope, sent him to' a local school. After that he went to college, and, when he was 20, he distinguished himself by winning a scholarship which entitled him to study in Europe. Brilliant achievements at Cambridge University followed. When he was 25, a pale-faced, studiouslooking young man, known' as Mr Advocate Smuts, he was practising in Cape Town, and beginning to talk and write about the questions of the hour. In those days he delivered his speeches in Dutch, and his opinions were, perhaps, differently colored. But his goal was the same—he wanted to make a nation ! An exceptional sense of duty seems to animate “Jannie” Smuts at all times. Anyone who had heard him speak in the House of Assembly'in Capo Town must have been struck by it. How well remembered is the day he introduced hiss long-looked-for Defence Bill, when in the heat of a sultry February afternoon that slim, almost dandified, figure, in blue serge, rose, and, without haste, without any sign of the occasion being important, gave his masterly review of the principles governing the defence of South Africa. He never faltered—never paused to consult a note — never lost his equanimity. For two hours and a-half his voice resounded through tho House. Since he could not claim to be an orator, he held attention by sheer ability. At tho end ho sat down as quietly as ho had risen; a contrast in ids attitude then, and always, to many of his colleagues, who find rest for mind and body in ungainly attitudes of repose. He is a terrific worker. From morning till night he burrows his ’ way through mountains of official documents. Whenever there is anything to be done, it is always Smuts who has to fetch the oil can and lubricate the machine’. No wonder fie is spoken of as “ the man who never takes a holiday! ” But that is not quite true; Smuts can and does rest. When he has the chance he goes to the isolated home which he has built on the veld, and these the “best-hated man in South Africa as he once called himself durinothe worries of election—passes his days with his family, away from the haste of civilisation. Neither he nor Mrs Smuts cares in the .east for social life, a fact learned by many wives of high officials through vain attempts to find Mrs Smuts “at-home” in Johannesburg. Those, however, who succeeded met an extremely simple, unaffected Dutchwoman, whoso’ .great interest in life was her husband and, children. In spite of her retiring nature and stron odomestic inclinations, Mrs Smuts is an intellectual woman, and the story of her appearing once with a baby on one arm and a Greek dictionary under tho other can easily be believed. At Doornkloof (Mimosa Gorge) both General and Mrs Smuts are free from all social obligations, and it is there that one sees another side of Smuts, for he is ( a complex character. There is the Smuts who sits on the Government Bench in Parliament—a- clean-cut. fair, cleareyed man, very quiet and controlled, who enters without haste, stops softly on his visits to various members, whispers mesand listens intently when there is anything to listen to. Then there is the energetic, quick-moving Smuts, who is caught in some social function, the spotless, rather silent, unamiable man. who reserves his cordiality for his intimate mends, but who will sometimes be drawn into an interesting conversation. One must not pass over the bored Smuts, answering in monosyllabic utterances the tiresome questioner upon agriculture “ So we are to till the soil ? Does th» Minister know what is required in addftion to land and water? ** “ Seed,” answers Smuts. “And after tho seed? ” “A plough.” “And after the plough?” “A harrow.” “Acs but there is something over and above all this is required.” It was midday, and excessively hot The general wiped his brow and ended the catechism in one final word, “ Sweat ” There is also Smuts the soldier, almost lost in a big military overcoat. But at Doornkloof it may be imagined that the Smuts who walks about his lands in unconventional garb, who takes his heavy stick and yields to his love of climbing mountains,, who delights in his children and thq simplest home life, is the very man _ himself. At Doornkloof “Groot Jannie and “Klein Jannie” (big Jannie and little Jannie) have time to study each other in the great friendship of father and son. “Klein Jannie” is one ot six, but among them ho stands out as a small edition of his father, both mentally and physically. Wherever Groot Jannie is, there “Klein Jannie ” is sure to be found, as earnest as his parent. In the days when he headed a flyine column in tho Bom- War and was first known as general, he did some wonderful marches, and has to his credit the remarkable performance of covering 700 miles of ground in five weeks. Once his horse was shot under him ; once ho awoke from a sound sleep to find his camp surrounded • ‘ once he was too ill to move, and entreated his men to leave him, which they refused to do; and on another memorable occasion he received a safe-conduct pass signed “ D. Haig, Colonel”—the signer being he who is now General Sir Douglas Haig, in command of the British forces in France. Animated by the same desire to do his duty by his country then as now, “Jannie ” Smuts spoke from numerous platforms after the war was over, with' enthusiasm and tremendous seriousness, always having, the building of a nation at heart. .At first lie didn’t think so much about the “ union of brothers.” He was mainly concerned with preventing a state of ton"dog and under dog, which he erroneously thought was imminent. When he found that he was wrong, he began to cultivate the art of compromise. The part he played then was a great surprise to those who had heretofore known him as a lawyer and a soldier. The breadth of his outlook made a large portion of his own race misunderstand him, though he tried to show them that th~

equilibrium of the country could only be maintained by tho 00-operation and friendship which the English wanted to establish. At various times he was State Attorney for the Transvaal, Acting Assistant Commandant-General, Minister of the Interior, Minister, of Finance, and ho has repeatedly taken General Botha’s place as Premier in the latter’s absence. To-day the public is honoring “Jannie” Smuts, the all-round great man, who has been called to London to give South Africa representation upon the Imperial' War I Council. “ The Empire’s greatest asset,” jhe was called recently by Major Guest, | who served with him for 12 months in the j Bast African campaign, and who desired i that South Africa should make it possible ■ for Smuts to respond to the call from England. “He has the power of instilling unquestionable -confidence by bis, sheer ability of seeing further and thinking clearer than others,”' said the major. Of course, everyone knows that, in spite of some divided- feeling in South Africa as to whether his duty claimed his presence in that country, General Smuts went to London, where, with W. P. Schreiner (High Commissioner for South Africa), be was sworn in as a' member of the Privy Council on 13th March. On 20th March last he attended the first meeting of the Imperial War Council as the representative of South Africa. Smuts is now in the mid-forties of his life. He has a fine constitution, in spite of the strain he has put upon it, both mentally and physically, and his vigorous action and nresence are making themselves felt in England. ,