The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1942. A WISE MAN SPEAKS.

Evening Star, Issue 24333, 23 October 1942, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1942. A WISE MAN SPEAKS.

It is given to few men to attain wisdom in any conspicuous and impressive way, but the world has found this quality contained in the mind and heart of South Africa’s Prime Minister. It is illustrated again in the address given in London on Trafalgar Day to the Lords and Commons. His theme was that the spirit of man will never bend the knee before the new slavery. His moaning is that the government of the world is not military, and it cannot be ruled by a military machine, but by the principles of equity, justice, fairness, and equality. Jan Smuts, of Dutch ancestry, fought , as a Boer genera! against the British, yet became the mainstay of British power in South Africa, signed the, Versailles Treaty under protest, attacked the occupation of the Ruhr, and continually pleaded for better treatment for Germany. He said, and time has proved him to he right, that the treaty did not make for peace, yet when Hitler attained power and outraged every humane principle General Smut’s ranged himself with Britain. Overcoming the opposition aris.ng from the remnants of the Boer anti-British sentiments, has consolidated his party in the Union Parliament, and carries on behind a safe working majority. He is heart and soul with the United Nations in the great struggle now proceeding. in the last war he played many important parts. He was conqueror of German East Africa in 1916, a member of 'Britain’s War Cabinet, an organiser of the Royal Air Force, and a negotiator for pence and the League of Nations. It has been said that he did not shine as a military commander in the East African campaign. His abilities lie more prominently in other directions. He is a philosopher and internationalist. While the war lasts he will stand for its vigorous prosecution till victory comes to the United Nations; then his voice will be heard as a negotiator in the new world order that he desires to see established. In his latest address General Smuts said people were searching their souls for the causes of war, and one of the post-war tasks would ‘be to build a new kind of solidarity and a new spirit among men that would remove these causes. General Smuts necessarily could not add much to what is known of the progress of the war at the moment. but his address will stimulate and encourage the peoples of the Allied and invaded countries, just as it must depress those of the Axis nations who hear it. He emphasised three steps that had made new prospects for the Allies—the defeat of the Luftwaffe over London. Hitler’s attack on ißussia. and flic Pearl Harbour treachery. If. as he says, these events have marked the climb of the Allies out of the abyss, it is reasonable to assume that they will he vital factors leading to the utter defeat of the Axis.