GENERAL SMUTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 71, 17 December 1917, Page 13

GENERAL SMUTS

AN IMPERIAL SOLDIER STATESMAN

HIS EXPRESSION OF EMPIRE

Through three years of a tremendous war (writes "11," in the "Manchester Guardian'" in a Teviow of the "Wartime Speeches of Eieutciiaut-Geuer.il the Eight Hon. J. O. Smuts"), tho nation has in the main lacked men who can express its best mind, formulate the meaning of the struggle, define its aims, and maintain a confidence in tho result. Mr. Asquith, indeed, in the early phases of the war set out our objects in memorable phrase, but with that exception there lias been a painful lack of expression. The void has been filled by a man of English education though not of English birth, who fifteen years ago was «, redoubtable enemy and whose presence as one of our leaders to-day is a sign of the vitality of those principles of British freedom against which as a nation we have often sinned, but never without remorse, repentance, and amendment. General Smuts has nothing to regret concerning the war he once waged against us. He is bold enough to avow on British platforms tho justice of the Boer cause and the value of the fight which his countrymen put up. Me maintain*!, not unjustly, that the Boer War cured us of bad Imperialism:— A cheap and easy victory would have strengthened what were then the strong Imperial tendencies of li'nghuui and tuo British. But that tremendously exhausting struggle, maintained by one of the world's smallest peoples, taught tin; British people that the Boers were lighting, in some measure, for Britain',; own traditional ideals. That meant that when the British won military victory so, great a change was found to have been brought about in their morale that not only the two small republics, but that which needed to be conquered in England, all three had met defeat. I believo that the Boer War, too, like your American and the French involutions, had an immense intluonce upon history; that it is to some exteut that influence which the world now is feeling in thr. wonderful co-operation between free peoples to which I have referred. The Boer War forced anew upon the British people the realisation of those fine ideals for which at bottom they invariably feel sympathy.

Tho defeat of Imperialism meant ir ;he first instance a new epoch of lib >rty in South Africa,' one result ol vhich is that General Smuts is lending ;« the -Empire against which he fought nvaluable aid as a member of the \Vai Cabinet to-day. For him there is no inxmsistency between the present anc ;he nasfc. Tho struggle which is being ivag«l by the British Empire now ii n nW-"[p]o the same as the struggle ivhicli he waged against it fifteen yean iSo. This, he tells us, is "a struggle iriiich goes to the foundation of things such a struggle as conies to tho work inly one in a thousand years." It is m decide the question whether the peoples are going to develop in future is free nations "working out their owr lestiny all over the world according tr their conscience and reason" or whether tho future is to be with militarism and military empires. We shall never understand the real inwardness of the effort of the British Empire until we recognise that their fight is not for mere self-interest or m»an, small issues, hut for tho greatest of nil. It is because all realise that the greatest, most essential, and most fundamental interest of humanity, is at stake, that the old cause for which millions have in all ages sacrificed their all, once again is in danger, it is for this that you witness today this spontaneous uprising, not only among the nations of the British Empire, but of the world. It is uot only the British peoples oi the European peoples that have come to realise the nature of the contest. Slowly, painfully, the people of America havo come to recognise and understand what really is at stake. . . . .lust as we had no option in August, mi, so America has come to see that she had no option; unless freedom is once more to he endangered, not only in the Olel World, but also in tho new; unless Itussia was once more to be delivered over to the reaction; unless Germany herself had to he finally given up as lost for ever. And, remember, even the soul i.f Germany will havo to he redeemed before the end! Do we not see how under the terrific strain of (his struggle the bonds of tho military despotism that have shackled that and other peoples are already beginning to snap as the end is approaching A general may he trusted to note what the moral forces are worth. Evei Bismarck recognised the value of wha he called "the imponderables." Then arc those who sneer at the moral fac tor, imagining God as always on tin side of the heavy battalions! Genera Smuts, who has waged successful cam paigns, says:— Remember greater forces ars fighling for us than our armies or the armies of our Allies. The unseen forces arc, being mobilised all over Christendom by German outrages and even deeper causes. The spirit of freedom is on the wing, tins Groat Creative .Spirit is once more moving among the nations in their unspeakable anguish. Let us be stroug and confident with till inspiration which comes from the cauise for which we are fighting, and when Ihe end comes—and it cannot now be so far off—let lis in I bo hour of victory recognise that it was not so much the valour and strength of our armies but far greater and deeper forces that havo carried us to victory. So far of the war. What of the future? These speeches deal with two ol tho groat problems before us, tho prob lem of the Empire and tho problem o the League of Nations. As to the Empire, General Smuts points out that the term is a misnomer., and it is only as we see how far it is a misnomer, anc why, that wo grasp the. principle or which tho unity of the Dominions must rest. J think I ho very expression "Kiu•pirc" is misleading, because it make? people think Mint we are one community. In which the word "l'liuniro" can appropriately be applied. Germany is an Hmpire. Rome was nu Umpire. India is an Empire. Bui; we aro si svslcm of nations. Wo arc not a. Stale, but a. community of States ni'i! imtion s . Wc are' far greater than any I'hnpiro which has ever existed, and by using this aneienl expression we really disguise the inni'i fact. thai, our whole position is different, and tlu.il- we are not one State or nation or Umpire, but a whole world by ourselves, ciiwi.sling of many nations, of uumy filal".s, and .nil sorts of communities, under one flag. The liberty of the component parti mist bo jealously maintained, and or the basis of liberty common actioi may be secured, not by a federal solution in the ordinary sense of_ the term jut by developing the practice of con tinuous consultation, possibly by i loublo Cabinet such us has now ansor spontaneously, possibly by some dif Went machinery of conference betweer tho various Governments. But the British Umpire, after all, is only om jroup of nations, and if we are te •ealise the idea of permanent peace such as would, as for as it is numanl) mssible, prevent the recurrence ol mything like the present calamity ;hore must ho relations based on the ;anio principles of unity in freedoa jstablis'hed among all flie peoples oi ;he world. There must bo a Lengw )f Nations with a common org in oi :onsii~at!on on all_ vital issues, not nerely for maintaining peace, bno for leafing with all the great international ntorests. The mistake of the Holy Mlinnce was thai ft was merely a

court to maintain tho status quo, a thing which was impossible after Waterloo, becauso of all tho national movements and democratic uprisings that wero seothing beneath the crust. Anv such conservatism will bo still more impossible after this war, because "wn have entered into an era of "rent change and unsettlomont." The league will have to direct and guide the movements ol the peoples, not mcrelv repress thorn Jt. W in ~P qllil. o a p 0lil ,„ force, but it Wl ll f a n if it ~| lmvs ,„,. limited armament. '['hero exist the elements ol public opinion which will support such a league, for the need ot it lias been bitten into us by hard experience. Millions of men have given their lives in this war, millions more aro prepared o give their lives in this war in order to achieve a good peace and (o ensure it for the future, and .1 think it would bo tho proper course that the peace treaty which is concluded after this war shall conlnin as an integral part of it the fundamental provisions, not in detail but in principle, which will safeguard the future peace of the world. If that is done, then this war will not have been fought in vain. Jf that is done, T nm sure that out of the horrors and sorrows of this, probably tho greatest tragedy nf tho. world, will have boon horn a great hope for the future of the world, and in that w:iv Ihn peaoc treaty which will conclude Ibis war wij] become a real Magna Chnrla for thn whole of biim.mily hwiffer. T hope Ihe statesmen of Europe at the conclusion of peace will regard the matter from I hat high standpoint.