Jan Christiaan Smuts 1870-1950

Abstract

To do justice within the limited compass of an obituary notice to the career of one whose conspicuous achievements in so many fields have been the admiration of his friends and the despair of his opponents is naturally no easy task. Jan Christiaan Smuts, within little more than the allotted span, created a position for himself as a lawyer, an administrator, a soldier, a statesman and a philosopher, which marked him in each case as pre-eminent. It is perhaps no disparagement to say that in the view of many he was least impressive as a party politician. That he has had rivals in each of the spheres mentioned it would be idle to deny, but in versatility on the highest level of accomplishment he is surely unique in his day and generation. To tell the story of his career even in the briefest outline consistent with accuracy would require a substantial volume. All of that belongs to history and had better be read and studied there. A few details may, however, be given here. After a normal literary education Smuts drifted into law and party politics. He did not at the outset have much success in either. His aloofness and somewhat forbidding attitude put him at a disadvantage in the competition for briefs, and on the other hand he had no patience with the interminable discussions characteristic of party controversy at the lower levels. Yet he was destined to be Attorney General in the last days of the Transvaal Republic and to be first Kruger’s, and then Botha’s, principal lieutenant. The South African war saw him in a new role as a man of action; and, as an intrepid Commando leader, he carried on to the bitter end under intense physical strain and in constant peril. In the first European war, having played a leading part in stamping out rebellion in his own country, he was entrusted with ‘high command’ in East Africa and subsequently went to London to serve in the War Cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio.