Smuts, Field Marshal Jan Christiaan

Smuts, Field Marshal Jan Christiaan (1870–1950),South African politician of mainly Dutch ancestry who led his country throughout the war.

After fighting against the British during the Boer War of 1899–1902, Smuts fought for them during the First World War in East Africa, and German South-West Africa, attaining the rank of lt-general in the British Army. He attended the London Imperial conference in 1917 and for the next eighteen months served in the British war cabinet. During this time he was chairman of the committee which organized the air defence of London and created the RAF as an independent service. He attended the Paris peace conference and was in the forefront of those who founded the League of Nations.

Returning to South Africa in 1919, Smuts became prime minister, a post he retained until 1924. In 1933 he formed a coalition with Hertzog and was deputy prime minister under him in their United South African National Party (United Party), but when war broke out in Europe he voted against Hertzog and neutrality. Parliament narrowly endorsed his decision and on 6 September 1939 he became prime minister again. He also became minister of defence and, from June 1940, C-in-C of the South African armed forces, an accumulation of power which no other Allied democratic leader acquired and which gave him full control of his country's political and military machinery.

But Smuts initially suffered constant opposition to South Africa's role in the war, both in and out of parliament, and though he felt more at home on the international scene than in domestic politics, he had to give time to retaining his majority and to curbing the activities of Nazi sympathizers (see Ossewabrandwag). However, he steadfastly refused, as many of his supporters urged, to suppress totally his fascist opponents.

Smuts was a strong advocate of holding Egypt at all costs and South African air and ground units, after fighting in the East African campaign, were by November 1941 fully engaged in the Western Desert campaigns, and in 1942 were also involved in capturing Madagascar. In 1941 Smuts was made an honorary field marshal in the British Army, but asked that he still be known by his old rank of general. Churchill who considered him a magnificent man and one of his most cherished friends was in constant telegraphic touch with him and valued his judgement. However, this was not infallible. For example, a month before Tobruk fell in June 1942, with a resultant heavy loss in South African troops, Smuts had declared himself quite satisfied with the situation there. In 1943 he sat with the British war cabinet, and attended the Cairo conference that December (see SEXTANT). In April 1945 he attended the San Francisco conference to take part in the opening session of the United Nations whose charter he had helped compose and whose preamble he had written. He remained in office until the 1948 general election when he was defeated by one of his most vociferous wartime opponents, Daniel Malan.

Bibliography

Hancock, W. K. , Smuts (Cambridge, 1962).
Ingham, K. , Jan Christiaan Smuts (London, 1986).