GENERAL SMUTS

Otago Witness, Issue 3331, 16 January 1918, Page 25

GENERAL SMUTS

HELPING TO RUN OUR WAR MACHINE.

Havo you ever been in South Africa? Have you ever lain at anchor in Table Bay and looked at the red roofs of Capetown standing by the fortress walls of Table Mount? Have you ever felt* the soft, warm earth of the veldt under your feet? Have you ever watched the ox wagons winding down a pass, or heard the moan of the ostrich in the darkness, or listened to the sudden rush of the torrent over the dry riverbed, or smiled at the simple jokes of the country folk? If you have (writes Olga Raoster, of the editorial staff of the Capo Times, Capetown, South Africa), you know "Jannio" Smuts, as he is affectionately called in South Africa; ''Jannie," who was born within 50 'miles of Capetown, You know all about him without being told, for he is part of the whole scheme of Nature and things there; a child of the land, an intellectual product of the country. There is a theory that a man finds his best impetus in the country in which ho is born. South Africa can certainly boast of one such great man in General Smuts, Minister of Defence of tho Union of South Africa, member of the Privy Council, Minister of Aerial Defence, and, at the present moment, one of the prominent men in the war. The cables from London tell almost daily of his activities. "With the exception of Premier Lloyd George, few members ol the British war machine have been more in the public eye during recent weeks. In his personal appearance and career he 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 tho 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 ho watched the pigs, and learned the ways and needs of live 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 Cape of Good Hope, sent him to a local school. After that he went to college, and, when he as 20, he distinguished himself by winning a scholarship which entitled him to study in Europe. Brilliant achievements at Cambridgo University followed. When he was 26, a palefaced, studious-looking man known as Mr Advocate Smuts, ho was practising in Capetown, and beginning to talk and write about the questions of tho hour. In those days he delivered his speeches in Dutch, and his opinions were, perhaps, differently coloured. 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. Any one who had heard him speak in the House of Assembly in Capetown must have been struck by it. How well remembered is the day he introduced his long-looked-for Defence Bill, when in the heat of a sultry February afternoon slim, almost dandified, figure, in blue serge, rose, and without haste, without any sign of the occasion being important, gave his masterly review of tho 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 the House. Since he could not claim to be an orator, he held attention by sheer ability. At the end he sat down as quietly as he had risen; a contrast in his attitude then, and always, to many of his colleagues, who find rest for mind and body in ungainly attitudes of reposo. He io 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 he 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 homo which he has built on the veldt, and there tho "best-hated man in South Africa"—as he once called himself during the worries of election—passes his days with his_ family, away from the haete of civilisation. Neither ho nor Mrs Smuts cares in the least for social, life, a fact le'arned by many wives of high officials through vain attempts to find Mrs Smuts "at home" in Johannesburg. Those, however, who suoceeded met an extremely simple, unaffected Dutchwoman, whose great interest in life was her husband and children. In spite of her retirinpr nature and strong domestic inclinations, Mrs Smuts is an intellectual woman, and tho story of'- her appearing once with a baby on one arm and a Greek dictionary under the other can easily b*e believed.

At Doornkloff {Mimtoui Gorgo) both .General and Mrs Smttftf, are free from all social obligations, and it is there that one sees another side of Smuts, for ho is a complex character. There is the Smuts who sits on the Government Bench in Parliament, a cloan-cut, '"air. clear-eyed man, very quiet and controlled, v.'ho enters without haste, steps softly on his visits to various members, whispers messages, and listens intently when there is anything to listen to. Then thcro 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 friends, but who will sometimes be drawn into an interesting conversation. Otic must not pass over the bored Smuts, answering in monosyllabic* utterances the tiresome questioner upon agriculture. - "So we are to till the soil? Does the Minister know what is required in addition to land and water?" ' Seed," answers Smuts. "And after the seed?" "A plough." "And after the plough? "A harrow." " Yes. but there is something over and above all this 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. Put at Doornkloof, it may be imagined that the Smut's 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 the simplest home life, is the very man himself. At Doornkloof " Groqt .Tannic" and "Klein Jannie" (big Jarinie and little

Jannie! have time to study each other in tho great friendship of father and son. " Klein Jannie" is one of six, but umong them he 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 ho headed a flying column in the Boer 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 live weeks. Once his horse was shot under him; once he 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. Jlaig, 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 tho war was over, with enthusiasm and tremendous seriousness, always having the building of a nation at heart, j At first ho d.idn't think so much about the "union of brothers" ; he was mainly concerned with preventing a state of topdog and underdog, which he erroneouslv 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 surmise 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 the equilibrium of the country could only b« maintained by the co-operat'on 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 he has repeatedly taken General Botha's place as Premier in the latter's absence.

To-day the publio is honouring "Jannie" Slmuts, the all-round great man, who has been called to London to give South Africa representation upon the Imperial "War Council. "The Empire's greatest asset," he was called recently by Major Guest, who served wi*h him for 12 months in tho East African campaign, and who desired that South Afrioa should make it possible for Smuts to respond from the call from England. "He has the power of instilling unquestionable confidence by his 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. Hisrh Commissioner for South Africa, he was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council on March 13. On March 20 last he at tended the last meetiner of the Imperial Wai 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 presence are making themselves felt in England.