Part 2 (2/2)
To the student of human interest smuts is a fertile subject His life has been a cineh with sharp contrasts Here is one of theathered in _Vereeniging_ to discuss the Peace Teruerilla colu town of O'okiep He received a summons from Botha to attend It was acco, Colonel” Later Haig and smuts stood shoulder to shoulder in a common cause and helped to save civilization
smuts is more many-sided than any other conteone into retireland and Cle world statesmen the only mind comparable to his is that of Woodrow Wilson They have in coh intellectuality But Wilson in his prie ofthe chief ss me to the inevitable coe I have seen the circumstances, both in public and in private and can attempt some appraisal
Each has been, and remains, a pillar of Empire Each has emulated the Admirable Crichton in the variety and e has held five Cabinet posts in England and smuts has duplicated the record in South Africa Each man is an inspired orator es ue Their platforly ht while se you are stirred and even exalted by his golden iery The sound of his voice falls on the ear likeof his utterance but you do not always re he says
With smuts you listen and you remember He has no tricks of the spellbinder's trade He is forceful, convincing, persuasive, and what isafter you have left his presence the words remain in your memory If I had a case in court I would like to have se seldom reads a book The only volumes I ever heard him say that he had read were Mr Dooley and a collection of the Speeches of Abraham Lincoln He has books read for hiives you the impression that he has spent his life in a library
smuts is one of the best-readHe ranges froton to Tolstoi History, fiction, travel, biography, have all coo frohted up ”Ah, yes,” he said, ”I have read all about those countries I can see theht at dinner at _Groote Schuur_ we had sweet potatoes He asked me if they were common in America I replied that down in Kentucky where I was born one of the favorite negro dishes was ”'possu:
”Oh, yes, I have read about ''possum pie' in Joel Chandler Harris'
books” Then he proceeded to tell reat institution ”Br'er Rabbit” was
We touched on German poetry and I quoted two lines that I considered beautiful When I reht Heine was the author he correctedthat they ritten by Schiller
Lloyd George could never carry on a conversation like this for the simple reason that he lacks familiarity with literature He feels perhaps like the late Charles Froh asked if he read the dramatic papers said: ”Why should I read about the theatre I _make_ dra at the moment He looked atexcept public docu before I became Prime Minister I certainly have no tie has always professed that he did not know French, and on all his trips to France both during and since the war he carried a staff of interpreters He understands a good deal norance of the language has stood hireat s that were not intended for his ears It is part of his political astuteness suist It has been said of hies than any e is a clever politician with occasional inspired moments but he is not exactly a statesman as Disraeli and Gladstone were smuts has the unusual coe of every wrinkle in the political game
Take his experience at the Paris Peace Conference He was distinguished not so much for what he did, (and that was considerable), but for what he opposed No man was better qualified to voice the senti people,--an infant aiants--he was attuned to every aspiration of an hour that realized many a one-time forlorn national hope Yet his statesallery of treaty-e, Cleht” that beat about the proceedings But it was sely to the e had to consider the chapter he wrote in the great instrun docuuided a stea but France The more or less unsophisticated idealism of Woodrow Wilson foundered on these obstacles
smuts, with his uncanny sense of prophecy, foretold the econo ahead he visualized a surly and unrepentant Ger to pay the price of folly; a bitter and disappointed Austria gasping for econo with revolt--all the chaos that spells ”peace”
today He saw the Treaty as a new declaration of war instead of an antidote for discord His judged universe shot through with reaction and confusion, and with half a dozen wars sputtering on the horizon, is the answer The sob and surge of te are lost in the din of older ones threatened with decay and disintegration It is not a pleasing spectacle
sned the Treaty but, as most people know, he filed a memorandum of protest and explanation He believed the ter a chance on interpretation, a desperate venture perhaps, but anything to stop the blare and bicker of the council table and start the work of reconstruction
At Capetown he told n or not to sign” Finally, on the day before the Day of Days in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, he took a long solitary walk in the Cha to his hotel he said to his secretary, Captain E F C Lane, ”I have decided to sign, but I will tell the reason why” He i noted for its illegibility wrote the famous memorandum
III
What of the personal side of smuts? While he is intensely human it is difficult to connect anecdote with him I heard one at Capetown, however, that I do not think has seen the light of print It reveals his methods, too
When the Germans ran amuck in 1914 smuts was Minister of Defense of the Union of South Africa The Nationalists ian to make life uncomfortable for hile they took another tack After the Botha can in German South-West Africa ell under way, a member of the Opposition asked the Minister of Defense the following question in Parliament: ”How much has South Africa paid for horses in the field and the Nationalists sought to make some political capital out of an expenditure that they remounts?” The Union forces employed thousands of called ”waste”
sures He was told that it would take twenty clerks at least four weeks to compile the data
”Never mind,” was his laconic comment The next day happened to be Question Day in the House As soon as the query about the ree came up smuts calht million one hundred and sixty-nine thousand pounds, ten shi+llings and sixpence” He then sat doithout any further reht by Harris & Ewing_