Jan Smuts
South African statesman, Milner ally, twice Prime Minister of South Africa (1870-1950)
Also known as: Smuts, General Smuts, Field Marshal Smuts, Jan Christiaan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950) was a Boer general turned British imperial loyalist; twice Prime Minister of South Africa (1919-1924, 1939-1948); member of the British War Cabinet in both world wars; drafter of the League of Nations Covenant; and signatory, with Roosevelt and Churchill, of the major wartime agreements. Quigley treats him as Milner's most important South African ally and one of the inner-circle figures who 'presided over' the Group's regular meetings (AAE 2).
From Boer general to Milner ally
Smuts was a Cambridge-educated Cape Afrikaner who fought as a Boer general against Britain in the South African War (1899-1902). After Boer defeat he became, in Quigley's account, 'a vigorous supporter of Rhodes and acted as his agent in Kimberley as late as 1905... one of the most important members of the Rhodes-Milner group in the period 1908-1950, went to the Transvaal' (T&H 150). With Louis Botha he led the Het Volk party that won the 1907 Transvaal elections and became the engine of the political reconciliation between Boers and British in the Union of South Africa (1910).
Quigley's framing: an inner-circle South African
Quigley names Smuts as one of the figures who 'presided over' the Group's inner-circle meetings: 'At various times since 1891, these meetings have been presided over by Rhodes, Lord Milner, Lord Selborne, Sir Patrick Duncan, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, Lord Lothian, and Lord Brand' (AAE 2). He lists him in the Group's inner core: 'Milner, Abe Bailey, George Parkin, Lord Selborne, Jan Smuts, A. J. Glazebrook, R. H. Brand (Lord Brand), Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian), Lionel Curtis...' (AAE 42). Smuts was the political vehicle through which the Kindergarten's South African program operated after the Kindergarten's members returned to England: 'they had faith in the political influence of Smuts and Botha, of Rhodes's allies, and of the four members of the Kindergarten who stayed in South Africa' (T&H 152).
The Imperial War Cabinet and Versailles
In 1917 Lloyd George 'created an Imperial War Cabinet by adding Dominion Prime Ministers (particularly Smuts) to the United Kingdom War Cabinet' (T&H 158). Smuts effectively served in the British War Cabinet from 1917 to 1919, including a period as British representative on the high-level inter-Allied bodies — a Dominion politician sitting in a British Cabinet, unprecedented in the constitution. At Versailles he was a principal drafter of the League of Nations Covenant, working with Robert Cecil, Wilson, and House. Quigley records that 'General Smuts' was among the seven persons including Milner himself 'that Lloyd George made his belated stand on June 2, 1919, that the German reparations be reduced and the Rhineland occupation be cut from fifteen years to two' (T&H 596).
Second World War and legacy
Smuts returned to the Premiership of South Africa in 1939 — a narrow parliamentary win over the pro-neutrality Hertzog government — and brought South Africa into the Second World War on the British side. He served on Churchill's War Cabinet through the war, drafted the preamble of the United Nations Charter at San Francisco in 1945, and was made a British Field Marshal in 1941. He was defeated in the 1948 South African general election by the Nationalists, ushering in the apartheid era. He died in 1950. Quigley's overall framing: an imperial-federation idealist, Milner's most consequential overseas ally, and the human bridge between the secret-society architecture of 1891 and the institutional architecture of the post-1945 Anglo-American system.
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 2 Quigley
At various times since 1891, these meetings have been presided over by Rhodes, Lord Milner, Lord Selborne, Sir Patrick Duncan, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, Lord Lothian, and Lord Brand.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 42 Quigley
Milner, Abe Bailey, George Parkin, Lord Selborne, Jan Smuts, A. J. Glazebrook, R. H. Brand (Lord Brand), Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian), Lionel Curtis, Geoffrey Dawson.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 150 Quigley
By a process whose details are still obscure, a brilliant, young graduate of Cambridge, Jan Smuts, who had been a vigorous supporter of Rhodes and acted as his agent in Kimberley as late as 1905 and who was one of the most important members of the Rhodes-Milner group in the period 1908-1950, went to the Transvaal.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 158 Quigley
He created an Imperial War Cabinet by adding Dominion Prime Ministers (particularly Smuts) to the United Kingdom War Cabinet.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 161 Quigley
Dawson negotiated the agreement with Milner, Smuts, and others. Although Australia and New Zealand were far from satisfied, the influence of Canada and South Africa carried the agreement.