Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-02
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.

NEW YORK.-Alfred T. Smith was
not the first happy warrior" Gen.
Jan Christian SHUTS, South African
statesman here for the tenth anniver-
sary Of the League Of Nations. bore this
title long before 1t was awarded to Mr..
Smith.
Gen. SHUTS has warred against Great
Britain and for Great Britain and for
Cecil Rhodes and against him, and for
and against various South African poll
ticians and issues since his entry into
public life in Cape Town in 1895. There
is no doubt about his being q warrior,
but just how happy he Is may be sug-
geSted by his own remark that a South
African Negro was the only happy man
in the world.
He was hard-boiled and hard-fisted
general, but his favorite light reading Is
the "Brer Rabbit Stories" by Joel
Chandler Harris. and his favorite recre-
alton Is botany. Although a pragmatist
in politics, he has the gift of tongues,
and he more than any other world
statesman engaged in the serve and
return of the Wilson theology, out OF
which grew the League of Nations. Here
is what he wrote of woodrow Wilson
after the signing of the peace treaty:
I'VE went down into the pit like a
second HeracleS to bring back the fair
Like an expert trap-shooter, he could
bring down winged words like these,
Just of hand, without missing a shot,
and then sit in a tight little confer
ence and fence with a sharp pencil
over boundaries. tariffs and trade with
perfect thrust and parry. Perhaps faro
was never played in the Trapsvaal. but
Gen, SHUTS has the instructive tech
nique of the born faro player. He
strews his chips literally over the
board, keeps one cold eye on the case
keeper and knows unerringly when to
copper bet.
Rooseveltian in his energies and in
terests, he is not unlike the great
American statesman in his planetary
idealism and his alert sense OF the inn
mediate and the practical" This duality
has marked him in world affairs as q
great humanist and liberal, and in the
view of his Nationalist foes Of South
Africa as q stubborn imperialist, the
enemy Of labor and potential dictator
AS premier Gen. SHUTS was kept in
power from 1919 to 1924 by coalition
of Unionists. who were English colo
nistS, and the South African party,
composed of affirmative and imperial
iSttic groups.
In 1924 it was q coalition of Labor
and Nationalist who overthrow him.
In politics he is at the opposite pole
from Ramsay Macdonald, being an I'M
: compromising enemy of even the AGA
demic socialism on which Mr.. Mac
donald built his career. He is sharply
! opposed to the entire tradition and
philosophy Of the British Labor party
While Gen. SHUTS drives sharply
ahead, either in forward or reverse. he
has many intermediate gears. Perform
ing valiant service in the Boer army, he
led the compromise faction at Vereenig-
ing in 1902. He then became o stanch
and loyal Imperialist, with the in
transient factions cunning for him
during all the later years Of his public
life, and finally bringing him down. He
was an ally of Cecil Rhodes. but sud
denly backtracked when evidences Of
Rhodes duplicity were produced. I'm.
| perialist as he was, 1t was he who ir
| 1917 made the Imperialist war confer
ence swallow the now memorable decla-
ration that Great Britain was no longer
an empire but an association OF nations
Even In his philosophy-and he IL
| a philosopher as well as q soldier and
statesman - his many-faceted mind
catches the spectrum Of the in-hetweer
zone bounded by black and white. Hii
book, "Holism and Evolution" written
In 1925, is O shrewd presentation Of 9
compromise theory Of evolution, moi
| too violently wrenching the theological
underpinnings of Dutch farmer tradi-
lions, whence came Dom Paul, carrying
Bible under his arm, proclaiminf
that the world was nat, and making
| Gen. SHUTS state attorney.
When woodrow Wilson began work
ing out the plan Of the League Of Ma
tons with Leon Bourgeois and Sir Rob
ert Cecil. he found in Gen. SHUTS
third informed and gifted ally Wilson
and Gen. SHUTS we're somewhat alilIi
u their aptitude in sweeping. tansen