GENERAL SMUTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12064, 20 July 1917, Page 7

GENERAL SMUTS.

lAUBEL-S WON BY EX-BOER LEADER. \M\ZES LONDON BY BRILLIANCY OF ORATORY. (Correspondent New \ork Sun. ) LONDON, May !». Wp have become accustomed to flunk nr Liovrl George as tho Britisher u ith ilm Imperial mind. In the, past wo have rated the two Pitts »md Palmersi en and Pisneh as mean ol this class. Am one the Britishers of to-day who a.ro earning t.he right to he classed as possessing tho Impend mind, no one has ccvne to the front more rapidly in the last halt-year than General Jan Christian Smuts, Minister of Detenceol tlie Union of South Africa, and a.t pietent' tin • representative of the feoutli African commonwealth in the Imperial Conference in London. lyoeping in rnind that this_ man Smuts has a. hig bushy head full of brains, just consider these, data about his career; they will suggest whether ho is of Imperial calibre:—■ Born m Johannesburg in 1870. Educated in South Airica and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he made a really distinguished scholastic record and earned the highest honours.

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 unfailing supporter of tho Boer cause, when the South African war broke out. Pose to distinction as one of the military figures in that, struggle, and to more distinction as one of the lirst men to recognise, after the. Boer cause had ,been lost, that destiny and common sense summoned the real intelligence of tho Dutch States to accept the situation and to become the right kind of citizens of the British Empire. "Was one of tho leading figures in framing the new scheme of government (or the Union of South Africa, under which within a. few years after the Boers had been conquered Great Britain turned over to them, as tha citizens of n, British dominion, the complete control of their own affairs.

Became in the Government of President Botha of tho South Africa Union the right hand of the President, in tho direction of domestic affairs. FOILED GERMAN INTRIGUE. At tho beginning of tiie present war immediately took a, leading part in making certain that (lie South African nation should not, fall into tho trap which tho Germans thought bad 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 colonics wero 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 tho war. The foregoing is a, very brief epitome of the record of t)i£ 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 tho Empire and, indeed, of the world.

The fashion in which Smuts has captured tho whole United Kingdom with, in tlie past few months is one of the most impressive evidences of tho real cosmopolitan quality of this nation, Ho has become, I think it may failrly be said, next only to Davjd Lloyd George, London's favourite orator. Wherever there is patriotic speechmakinj* to be mado, wherever there is need for an inspiring and invigorating statement. of tho causes to action, and tho inspiring justification for Great Britain's place in this war, there Smuts is wanted. Ho is a real statesman of vision and understanding, and a wonderfully practical administrator. Although not much is said or known in these times as to the contributions which particular men make to the cause of national and Imperial defence, it begins to be appreciated that Jan Smuts is 0110 of the men upon whom the Lloyd George administration 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 tho capital to make his way if he is of the forceful and determined sort that Smuts is.

Pie is liable to bo a bit misunderstood; to bo suspected of a bit of presumptuousness if lie offers advice, and presumes to know as m'ach about affairs as the seasoned denizens of the metropolis. Smuts is not of this sort- Ho has a happy faculty of giving advice without giving; offence; of interesting himself without intruding himself: of helping witho.ut being even suspected of hindering. Wherever Smuts makes a speech there men rise up and jyppiWud sentiments which represent practical counsel for administrators and inspiring appeal to the nation. SPEECHES AROUSED ENGLAND.

When I first began to find Smuts'a speeches in the newspapers nearly every day, I was disposed to a. littlo cynicism about the importance attached to this reconstructed Boer general. I wondered if the Britishers wore jollying hint a bit in the hope that through j him they might tickle the satisfaction | of his Boer eonstitMonts. But after I had read some of his speeches I knew why they got so much space in the papers. They were just naturally tho best speeches that were being made in j London, and with the exception of the | Premier's, thev were about the mosti widely read Testimony to this was to bo found in the stream of letters which they brought, to the newspapers in. dic-ating admiration and approval of evervthinf he paid. Smuts is one of the men who hare had time in spite of the stress of war to shadow forth an outline of the vast sequences of this era. Tt is a y lfcl o n of what, the British Empire and the reunion of the Anglo-Saxon races means to the world. . , " This.' 1 said General Smuts m one or bis recenti speeches, "is the battle or 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, m a sense, the military mainstay of the Allies. , ~ , j " Looking at this nation as it stands before the world to-flay, he continued. " I feel that liberty, like wisdom. k once more justified of her children. The great British commonwealth of nations overseas did not always want this bloodshed and the terror of militarism always overshadowin<T them. Thev wanted to bend all their energies and resources to the building up of their nations, and that! could not be done when they had to bo prepared to meet the enemy at. every point. Slowly but surely America has come to realise that thU struggle was tho old struggle for which she had fought, in former years. This was once more George asliington against George 111. In other words, the issue of freedom against, slavery, of free government against military despotism. BATTLE FOR FREEDOM.

"In my dav and in .my country.' added Gmitiml 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 a pain, 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,"

This is the sort, of appeal that Smuts and men of his mind made in Soutli Africa at the beginning of the war. These* men. realise that British institutions. though indeed forced upon them unwillingly, had been really a, blessing. In truth, there arc no more lo.yal British Imperialists in the Envoi re now than these men of South Africa, who fought under Ivruger and Botha in the South African war. They were won in the midst of the bitterness of their defeat by tihe generosity which handed their country back to them and gave them a, measure of freedom and of real control and opportunity that they had never enjoyed and could not have hoped for under the narrow ajtf almostl despotic reign of Kruger and his burgliers. In South Africa they lovo hjm because they have learned to have confidence in him. If some sort of an Imperial Senate or Council of the Empire is going to bo set up after this war Smuts mustl bo accounted one of the men who will have an important part in guiding its development.