GENERAL SMUTS. T HOSE who had the privilege of hearing General
Smuts's speech at the dinner in his honour in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords are not likely to forget it. It was a speech not only eloquent but full of ideas and of honesty. If the various nations of the Empire go forward in the spirit of that speech, the greatness and the beneficent influence of the Empire will exceed even the dreams of optimists. The generosity which pervaded all General Smuts's remarks both warms and inspires. It is the absolute antithesis of the German spirit. But perhaps the highest earnest for the future of the Empire was not the sincerity and fertility of General Smuts's views, but the fact that he stood there at all—transformed from a chivalrous and skilful foe into a loyal and enthusiastic statesman of the Empire. Ho is an almost incredibly romantic symbol of the wonderful workings of liberty. We cannot call to mind any episode more thrilling in its context than that related by General Smuts of how in the last year of the Boer War he escaped through the cordon Lord French had drawn round him in Cape Colony. The accounts written at the time by an eyewitness of how a Boor patrol tried to find a way through " Murderer's Gap," and how under a heavy fire " only one Boer escaped," though he probably had so many bullets in him that he would " do no further damage," did not—through a natural want of information—add the fact that the one Boer was General -Smuts. The Boers found " a way out," and two days later General Smuts happened to look on innocently at the passing of a train which, as he learned afterwards, was carrying Lord French ! Lord French might very well have become the involuntary guest of General Smuts on that occasion. And now time as usual brings its revenges, and Lord French is of course devoutly thankful that one Boer escaped from " Mur- derer's Gap," and General Smuts is well content that he missed his opportunity of wrecking Lord French's train. The lessons of the Boer War and those of the greatest of all wars are to General Smuts the same. It is only that the setting now is tremendously different from what it was. " The only things that survive are -the simple human feelings, feelings of loyalty to your fellows, and feelings of comradeship and patriotism which carry you through difficulty and privation. We soldiers know the extreme value of these simple feelings. We know how far they can go, and that they can bear the whole weight of civilization on themselves. . . . The South African War was carried on in a sportsmanlike spirit and in a clean way. Respect for one's opponent, felt on both sides, has led to the new basis of South Africa." One cannot imagine an eminent German General using such words. He would probably regard the connexion of sport and war as a gross military impropriety. General Smuts happily sees in the comradeship and loyalty of young men now on the battle- fields, and drawn from every part of the Empire, an instrument of Imperial union stronger than any that statesmen may be planning. " My feeling is that the work is already largely done." He spoke of the future of the Empire in general terms as a thing indefinite and undecided, and yet with implicit assurance of its reality and its success. He would prefer to describe the Empire as the " British Commonwealth of Nations." For, as he explained, our Empire is not like any Empire that ever existed, and the very title is therefore in a way misleading. Never before have self-governing and virtually independent nations lived together in a political union. And yet General Smuts does very truly insist on the strict and central idea of Empire, for he laughs out of court the notion that the Dominions would ever exchange the limited Monarchy for an elected President. As our Empire is unique, so is it impossible to borrow other people's experiences for its management :- "Look at the United States. There you find what is essentially one nation, not perhaps in the fullest sense, but what is more and more growing into one nation ; one big State consisting, no doubt, of separate parts, but all linked up into one big continuous area. The 'United States had to solve the problem which this presented, and they discovered tho federal solution—a solution which provides subordinate treatment for the subordinate parts, but one national Federal Government and Parliament for the whole. Compare with that State the enormous system which is comprised in the British Empiro. You can see at once that a solution which has been found practicable in the case of the United States will never work in the case of an enormous system such as we are trying to work out for the world. What I feel in regard to all theEmpiros of the past, and even in regard to the United States, is that the effort has always been towards forming one nation—always one nation. All the Empires we have known in the past and that exist to-day are founded on the idea of assimilation, of trying to force human material into one mould. Your whole idea and basis is entirely different. You do not want to standardize the nations of the British Empire ; you want to develop them towards a greater nationality."
We agree with General Smuts that the Imperial War Cabinet is a long step in advance of the old Imperial Conference. The security of the Empire is the primary necessity that will impose free and frank discussion of foreign policy and Imperial Defence on all the sister-nations of the great British Commonwealth. Germany dumped herself down to make mischief on the communications of the Empire. She was a vilely bad neigh- bour. Her cynicism and unscrupulousness have never been matched in the history of civilization. General Smuts, who experienced her bad ncighbourship in Africa, speaks with conviction on this point. We do not want to take territory for the sake of taking it ; we do not want to make money at the expense of others ; but we must have security, and we must do whatever is necessary to achieve it. We demand security for liberty. Those who suffer from that demand are only in the poSition of people who suffer from the weight of the laws that arc framed to protect decent men.
In General Smuts's vision of the future there is nothing whatever to fear. Suppose that the population of the British Isles is one day—as it must be—outnumbered by the popula- tion of Canada, and even by that of Australia or by the white population of South Africa. The sister-nations will still hold together if they hold to liberty. That will be their common bond. The capital may, for all we care, be removed to Ottawa—though we think that, as a matter of fact, London will remain the sentimental centre of the race. There may be a Canadian Commander-in-Chief and an Australian First Sea Lord, but if liberty continues there is no reason why the British Commonwealth should ever perish. " Talk of a League of Nations ! " exclaimed General Smuts. " The Empire is the greatest League of Nations." That is our first business, to keep the Empire sweet, true, honest, and free, and we need not greatly bother artificially to create other Leagues, for all honest men who desire liberty will desire to associate themselves in their ideals with a secure and liberty- loving community of nations.
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