GENERAL SMUTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 January 1918, Page 3

GENERAL SMUTS.

A POWKRFUL FIGURE IN I.ONDO-S

ii]-;u'll\\; to i;ia\ oui: wau MACillMi. Have you ever ■been in .South Ai'rii-aV Have you ever lain at anchor in Table I Hay and looked al. the red roofs of (_'apotown standing by the fortress walls of Table MountV Hava 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 ol the ostrich' in the darkness, or listened to the sudden rush of the torrent over the dry riverbed, of smiled at the simple jokes of the country folk? If you have (writes OJga Raesler, of the editorial staff of the Cape Times, Capetown, South Africa), you know "Jannie" Smuts, as lie is affectionately called in South Africa; "Jannie," who was 'born within fifty miles of Capetown*, You know all about him without 'being told, for lie is part of the whole scheme of nature and things there; a child of the land, an intellectual produet of the country. There is a theory that a man finds his best, impetus in the'eountry 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 Privvy 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 tha 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 he may be said to epitomise his country and his ra£e. 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 li6ld the rope in his tiny hand, He was put in charge of the geese, two, in those days, and lie watched the pigs, and learned the ways ami need's of live stock in a' manner that ha 3 been invaluable to him since.

v 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 lie was 20, he distinguished himself by winning a scholarship which entitled him to study in Europe. Brilliant achievements at Cambridge University followed. Wihen he was 25, a palefaced, studioU3-looking young man known as Mr. Advocate Smuts, he was practising in Capetown, 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 najtion! An exceptional sense of duty seems ito animate "Jannie" Smuts at all times. i Any one who had heard him speak Jn 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 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 not* —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 do.vn 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 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 c:ir. and lubricate the machine. Xo wonder he is spoken of as "the man who never takes a holiday"! But that is not finite true; Smuts can and does rest. When he has the chance, he goes to the isolated home which he has built on 9ie veldt, and there the "best-hated man in Soutli Africa"—as he once call-

er! himself during the worries of election —passes his days with his family, away from the haste of civilisation. " Keither he nor Mrs. Smuts cares in the least for social life, a. fact learned by many wives of high officials through v.un =.ttempt9 to find Mrs. Smuts "at home" in Johannesburg. Those, :however, who succeeded met an extremely simple, unaffected Dutchwoman, whose great interest in life was her husband and eliildern. In spite of her retiring nature and strong domestic 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 the other can easily be believed.

At Doomkloof (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 hv a complex character. There is the •Smuts who sits on the Government Bench in Parliament, a. clean-cut, fair, clear-eyed man, very quiet and controlled, who enters without haste, steps softly on his visits to various members, whispers messages, and 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, unnmiable man, who reserves his cordiality for his intimate friends, but who will sometimes be drawn into an interesting conversaton. One must not pass over the bore 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 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 nig: military overcoat. But at Doornkloof, it may be imagined that tire Smuts who walks'about his lands in unconventional garb, who takes his heavy jstick and yields to bis love of climbing mountains, who delights in his children and the simplest home life, is the very man himself. At Doornkloof "Groat .Tannic" ( 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 jof six, but among them'ho stands out [as a small edition of kU father, both

mentally and, physically. Wherever "Groot .Tannic" is, there "Klein Jannie" is sure to be found, as earnest as his parent. In the. days when he 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 M covering 700 miles of ground in five 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. 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, ".Tannie'' -Smuts spoqe from numerous platforms after the war Was over, with enthusftsm and tremendous seriousness, always having the building of a nation at heart. At first he didn't think so much about the "union' of brothers"; he was mainly concerned with preventing a state of topdog and underdog, which lie erroneously thought wa.s imminent. When he found that he was wrong he began to cultivate the art of coinpromise. The part he played then was a great surprise' to those who had. heretofore known him as a lawyer and a ?oldier. 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 he maintained by the co-operation and friendship whicli the English wanted to establish. At various times he was State Attorney for the Transvaal, Acting Assistant Command-ant-General, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Finance, and he ha* repeatedly taken General Botha's plate as Premier in the latter'R absence. To-day the public is ihonorln" "Jannie" Smuts, 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 \ya s called recently by Major Guest, who served with him for twelve months in the East African campaign, and who desired that South Africa should make it possible for Smuts to respond,, to the fall from England. 'He has tilie power of instilling iraquehtionable confidence bv his sheer ability of seeing further and thinking clearer than others," said the major. Of course, evcryoce knows that, in spite of sonic, divided feeling- in South Africa as to whether life duty claimed his presence in that eonntrv, General Smuts went" to London, where, with W. P. Selireiner, High Commissioner for South Africa, he was sworn in as a member of the. Privy Council on 13th March. On -?oth 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 presence are makir." themselves felt in England. ° i