• GENERAL SMUTS ON ENDURING PEACE
On 7une 28th, 1919, the day the Treaty of Versailles was signed, General Smuts circulated a statement explaining why, and with what reluctance, he had consented to sign the treaty. That notable but little known document is so directly relevant to the present situftion, in pointing both the mistakes to be avoided and the principles to be applied, that it is worth while to ,reprint the memorandum here.
IHAVE signed the Peace Treaty,- not because I consider it a HAVE document, but because it is imperatively necessary
to close the war ; because the world needs peace above all, and nothing could be more fatal than the continuance of the state of suspense between war and peace. The months since the armistice was signed have perhaps been as upsetting, unsettling and ruinous to Europe as the previous four years of war. I look upon the Peace Treaty as the close of those two chapters of war and armistice, and only on that ground do I agree to it.
I say this now, not in criticism, but in faith ; not because I wish to find fault with the work done, but rather because I feel that in the Treaty we have not yet achieved the real peace to which our peoples were looking, and because I feel that the real work of making peace will only begin after this Treaty has been signed, and a defi- nite halt has thereby been called to the destructive passions that have been desolating Europe for nearly five years. This Treaty is simply the liquidation of the war situation in the world. The promise of the new life, the victory of the great human ideals for which the peoples have shed their blood and their treasure without stint, the fulfilment of their aspirations towards a new international order and a fairer, better world are not written in this Treaty and will not be written in treaties. "Not in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth," as the Great Master said, must the foundations of the new order be laid. A new heart must be given, not only to our enemies, but also to us ; a contrite spirit for the woes which have overwhelmed the world ; a spirit of pity, mercy and forgiveness for the sins and wrongs which we have suffered. A new spirit of generosity and humanity, born in the hearts of the peoples in this great hour of common suffering and sorrow, can alone heal the wounds which have been inflicted on the body of Christendom.
And this new spirit among the peoples will be the solvent for the problems which the statesmen have found too hard at the Con- ference. There are territorial settlements which- will need revision. There are guarantees laid down which we all hope will soon be found out of harmony with the new peaceful temper and unarmed state of our former enemies. There are punishments foreshadowed, over most of which a calmer mood may yet prefer to pass the sponge of oblivion. There are indemnities stipulated which cannot be exacted without grave injury to the industrial revival of Europe, and which it will be in the interests of all to render more tolerable and moderate. There are numerous pin-pricks, which will cease to pain under the healing influences of the new international atmo- sphere. The real peace of the peoples ought to follow, complete, and amend the peace of the statesmen.
In this Treaty, however, two achievements of far-reaching im- portance for the world are definitely recorded. The one is the destruction of Prussian militarism, the other is the institution of the League of Nations. I am confident the League of Nations will yet prove the path of escape for Europe out of the ruin brought about by this war. But the League is as yet only a form. It still requires the quickening life, which can only come from the active interest and the vitalising contact of the peoples themselves. The new creative spirit, which is once more moving among the peoples in their anguish, must fill the institution with life and with inspiration for the pacific ideals born of this war and so convert it into a real instrument of progress. In that way the abolition of militarism, in this Treaty unfortunately confined to the enemy, may soon come as a blessing and relief to the Allied peoples as well. And the enemy peoples should at the earliest possible date join the League, and in collaboration with the Allied peoples learn to practise the great lesson of this war—that not in separate ambitions or in selfish domination, but in common service for the great human causes, lies the true path of national progress.
This joint collaboration is especially necessary today for the re- construction of a ruined and .broken world. :The war has not only resulted in the utter defeat of the enemy armies, but has gone immeasurably further. We witness the collapse of the whole political and economic fabric of Central and Eastern Europe. Unemployment, starvation, anarchy, war, disease and despair stalk through the land. Unless the victors can effectively extend a helping hand to the defeated and broken peoples, a large part of Europe is threatened with exhaustion and decay. Russia has already walked into the night, and the risk that the rest may follow is very grave indeed. The effects of this disaster would not be confined to Central and Eastern Europe. For civilisation is one body, and we are all members of one another. A supreme necessity is laid on all to grapple with this situation. And in the joint work of beneficence the old feuds will tend to be forgotten, the roots of reconciliation among the peoples will begin to grow again, and ultimately flower into active, fruitful, lasting peace.
To the peoples of the United States and the British Empire who have been exceptionally blessed with the good things of life I would make a special appeal. Let them exert themselves to the utmost in this great work of saving the wreckage of life and industry on the Continent of Europe. They have a great mission, and in fulfilling 1 it they will be as much blessed as blessing. All this is possible, and 1 I hope capable, of accomplishment ; but only on two conditions.
In the first place, the Germans must convince our peoples of their good faith, of their complete sincerity through a real honest effort to fulfil their obligations under the Treaty to the extent of their ability. They will find the British people disposed to meet them half-way in their unexampled difficulties and perplexities. But any resort to subterfuges or to underhand means to defeat or evade the Peace Treaty will only revive old suspicions and arouse anger and prove fatal to a good understanding. And, in the second place, our Allied peoples must remember that God gave them overwhelming victory—victory, far beyond their greatest dreams, not for small selfish ends, not for financial or economic advantages, but for the attainment of the great human ideals for which our heroes gave their lives, and which are the real victors in this war of ideals.
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