GENERAL SMUTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 3 August 1917, Page 6

GENERAL SMUTS.

LAURELS WON BY EX-BOER

LEADER

(Correspondent New York Sun.)

LONDON, May 9

We have become accustomed to think of Lloyd George as the Britisher with tne Imperial mind. In the, past we have raced the two Pitts and Palmerston and Disraeli as men of this class.

Among the Britishers of to-day who are earning the right to be classed as possessing the Imperial mind, no one lias come to the front more rapidly in the last half-year than General Jan Christian Smuts, Minister of Defence of the Union of South Africa, and f.t present the representative of tne South African Commonwealth in the Imperial Conference in "London.

Keeping in mind that this i*ian Smuts has a big bushy head full of brains, just consider these data about h>s caieer; they will suggest whether yevc is of Imperial calibre: — Born in Johannesburg in 1870.

, Educated in South Africa and at Christ's Colleae, Cambridge, where he made a really distinguished scholastic record and earned the highest honors.

Practised, law with eminent success , in South Africa. Wrote extensively on a variety of public questions. Entered politics as a young-man, and was an uniailing supporter of the Boer cause when the South African war broke out. Rose to distinction as one of the military figures in that struggle, and to more distinction as one of the first to recognise, after the Boer cause had been lost, that destiny and common sense summoned the real intelligence of the Dutch States to accept the situation ; and to become the right kind of citizens of the British EmpireWas one of the leading figures in framing the new scheme of government for the Union of South Africa, under which, within a few years after the Boers had been conquered Great Britain turned over to them, as the citizens of a British dominion, the complete control of their own affairs. Became in the Government of President Botha of the South Africa Union the right hand of the President in the direction of domestic affairs. Foiled German Intrigue. At the beginning of the present war immediately took a leading part in making certain that the South African nation should not fall into the trap which the Germans thought had been set for it and revolt against its allegiance to the British Empire. Became Minister of National Defence, and as such directed the campaign in which the German colonies were seized by the South African, forces. Sent to London as one of South. Africa's representatives for the purpose of Imperial consideration of Imperial problems presented by the war. - The foregoing is a very brief epitome of the record, of the man, who is now barely forty-seven years old, has the better part of his career ahead of him, and begins to be regarded as one of the coming figures of the Empire and, indeed, of the' world. I

The fashion in which Smuts has cap- { tured the whole United Kingdom within the past few months is one of the most impressive evidences of the real cosmopolitan quality of this nation. He | has become, i think it may fairly be said, next only to David Lloyd George, London's favorite orator. "■■Wherever '/ there is patriotic speechmaking to be made, wherever there is need for an inspiring and invigorating statement of the causes to action, and the inspiring justification for Great Britain's place in this war, there Smuts is wanted. He is a real statesman of vision and understanding, and a wonderfully practical administrator. Although not; niuch is ] said or known in these times as to" the 1 contributions which particular men niakg to the cause of national and Imperial defence, it begins to be appreciated that Jan Smuts is one of the men ■Upon yvhstm the Lloyd George adminis- | tration leans for counsel and guidance, and one man in whom it has not been disappointed. |

It is not always easy for a distinguished provincial at che capital to make his way if he is of the forceful and determined sort that Smuts is. He is liable to be a bit misunderstood; to be suspected of a bit of presumpiousuess if ho offers advice, and presumes to know as much about affairs as the seasoned denizens of the metropolis. Smuts is not of this sort. He has a i-appy_ faculty of giving advice without j giving offence; of in teresting himself without intruding himself; of helping without being even suspected, of hindering. Wherever Smuts makes a speech , there men rise up and applaud senti- I ments which represent practical coun- . sel for administrators and inspiring appeal to the nation. Speeches Aroused England. j When I first began to find Smuts' j speeches in the newspapers nearly every I . i.y, I was disposed to a little cynicism ! about the importance attached to. this ! reconstructed Boer general. I won- j der'ed if the Britishers were jollying him ; a bit in the hope that through, him they J might tickle the satisfaction of his Boer j constituents. But after I had> read 1 some of his speeches I knew why' they j got so much space in the papers. They j ■were just naturally the best speeches that were being made in London, and ! with the exception of the Premier's, They were about the most widely read. Testimony to this was to be found in the stream of fetters which they brought to the newspapers indicating admiration and approval of everything he said. Smuts is one of the men who have had time, in spite of the stress of war, to shadow forth an outline of the vast sequences of this era. It is a vision of what the British Empire and the reunion of the Anglo-Saxon races means to the world. "This," said General Smuts in one of his recent speeches, "is the battle of freemen against bondmen. Before the war it was bruited abroad that this nation had become corrupted by wealth, that it was growing soft, and that the day of trial would find, it wanting; but when the blow fell it showed what freemen could do. It showed what a free nation could do when it was fed on the stuff of freedom. To-day it had become

the financial, the moral and, in a sense, the military mainstay of the Allies, r "Looking at this nation as it stands before the world to-day," he continued, "I feel that liberty, like wisdom, isonce more justified of her children. The great''British commonwealth of nations overseas did noo always want this bloodshed and 'the terror of militarism always overshadowing them. They wanted "to bend all their energies and resources to the building up of their nations, and that could not be/lone when they had to be prepared to meet the enemy at every point. Slowly but surely America has come to realise that this struggle was the old struggle for which she had fought in former years. This was once more George Washington against George 111. In other words, the issue of freedom against slavery, of free government' against military despotism. Battle for Freedom. "In my day and in my country," added General Smuts, "I have seen freedom go under, but I have seen it rise again. I have seen that small people of mine, a beaten people, rise again and fighting for the same freedom again, but now no longer for themselves but for the whole of the rest of the world, and the record of their efforts you will find written all over Africa south of the equator." In South Alrica they love him because they have learned to have confidence in him. If some sort of an Imperial Senate or Council of the Empire : is going to be set up after this war Smuts must be accounted one of the men who will have an important part in guiding its development. j