Tárogató, 1943-1944 (6. évfolyam, 3-12. szám)
1943-10-01 / 4. szám
TÁROGATÓ 15 remember the self-effacing South African who was admitted to Middle Temple in ’95. War made Smuts. Physically and mentaly it broadened and developed him. It watered the flower of his political genius. It brought out the latent powers of leadership within him. He was one of Kruger’s men. He fought throughout the Boer war. Its end found him leading a daring Commando raid into the Cape Colony. Peace found him a tough, bearded leader of men, self-confident, beloved by some, hated by others. Two years after the peace found him a supporter of Britain. He had entered Transvaal politics as a colleague of Botha and had travelled to London in time to hear the good news that the Transvaal was to have unconditional self-government. This act of fairness and generosity so impressed him that he hurried home and threw himself into the task of eradicating the remaining ill-feeling between Boers and British. The job was not easy. It took great moral courage. It earned him enemies. But he succeeded. His broad views offended many of the narrow, strict Boers of the old school. But Smuts has never minded offending people, when he considers it necessary. The first world-war found some differences of opinion, deliberately fomented for years by German agents, among South Africans. Fight or not? Smuts and Botha settled that. In West Africa Bota made short work of the Germans in the campaign which he led. Smuts himself fought and commanded in East Africa driving himself and his men relentlessly, despite disease, terrible weather and conditions. But Smuts’ genius had already been recognised at home, and in 1917 he was summoned by Lloyd George to London and invited into the War Cabinet—an unprecedented honour. Through 1917 he travelled Britain, addressing vast meetings. At Tonypandy he faced a crowd of hostile, striking Welsh miners. The situation looked ugly. Then, “I have heard in my country that the Welsh are the greatest singers in the world”, Smuts said. ’’Will you not first sing me one of the songs of your land?” The miners cheered him, and sang. Then they listened as he spoke to them, simply and sincerely, without notes. And then they went back to work. When he returned to South Africa after the Peace Conference he became Prime Minister. During the next year or two he put down strikes and attempted rebellion with a stern hand. When London sent for him to go to Ireland, then torn by the “Troubles”, he went and contributed largely to the truce which followed. To-day, as head of a country which is doing much to win the war, with its fine fighting men and its new but fast-growing war industry, Smuts is at the height of his political strength. He works 12 hours a day, but still rises little after dawn and rides hard every morning. Tall, wiry, lithe, he looks 20 years younger than his age. General Smuts is known to the world, not only as a great soldier and statesmen, but also as a great Christian. In many speeches he has emphasised the truth that the world cannot be saved by political measures alone. As he says: “Fundamentally the world has no need of a new order or a new plan, but only of the honest and courageous application of the historical Christian idea”. —“Congregational Church Monthly”. HELP ONE ANOTHER A certain woman with two children was very anxious to secure a home of her own and so she purchased a lot on time payments. After two years the owner of the mortgage asked her why she did not build, and she told him that she first would have to get rid of the mortgage before she could borrow money. He promptly discharged the mortgage and took her note for the balance, and she was able to secure a loan and build her house. She has not yet paid the note, but the holder of the note is not at all uneasy. There are scores of ways of helping other people, and if we simply keep our eyes open we shall see them and find, possibly to our surprise, that they are right at our owm doorstep. Not what we cannot do but what wre are well able to do is what the Lord requires of us. The Golden Age will never come until the individual sets about making it come to his own fireside and his own neighbourhood. —“ONWARD”. THE MORAL MATTERHORN 1 has been said that the Matterhorn rises up among the Swiss Alps so stately and solitary in its majestic splendour that it becomes the centre of nearly all calculations made by guides and tourists. The whole scheme of the Swiss Alps seems to revolve around that noble mountain. Men are assured of their whereabouts as long as they have it in view.
