GENERAL BOTHA DEAD.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1532, 4 September 1919, Page 9

GENERAL BOTHA DEAD.

General Louis Botha, whose death was announced last week, prior to the Boer War took an active part in racing in South Africa, as did a brother, but thereafter this great man, in whose early life the horse played a prominent part, had no time to devote to sport. All his energies were applied in other directions. His qualities have been well summed up by an intimate thus: “All his life General Botha subordinated personal 4 nc li na ‘ tion to public duty. A passionate lover of peace, yet a great soldier; a simple farmer, chained to the wheel of politics; bred on the veldt, only to be immured in an office; such tricks Fate play him. Yet he mastered the distasteful part for which he was cast. The blend of deliberate thought with quick decision, the firm will, the judgment that seldom errs, the wide knowledge of men —these are characteristics common to the great soldier and to the statesman, and General Botha had them all; but he had, too, a ready vigour in the rough-and-tumble of political debate, and a grip of the practice of government which must have been slowly and painfully acquired. The charm of his personality and conversation lay less in these qualities than in a great heart and simple humanity.”