Evening star., 1950-09-12
South Africa to Honor Smuts
With Military Funeral Friday
World Leaders Voice
Regret at Death of
SoIdier-Stutesmun
By the Asseeiaied Press

| By the Assoeioied Press
PRETORIA. South Africa, Sept
12.-South Africa today planned
a military funeral for her greatest
soldier and one of the democratic
worlds foremost stateSmen-Fielc
Marshal Jan Christian Smuts.
The pade-bearded Smuts. a
leader in three wars and two world
peace movements. died last night
He had been Ill since a back all
ment forced him to bed May %
four days after his Both birthday
Funeral services will be held
Friday in Pretoria's leading Dutch
Reformed Church, the "Groote
Kerk." Burial probably will be at
Marshal Smuts' farm, Doornkloof
where he died. 1t is 10 miles from
Pretoria.
A military funeral was being
arranged at the request of Mar
shall Smuts' family.
Condolences Pour In.
The field marsnars physician
said death resulted from a heart
collapse following a blood clot in
the brain. Pneumonia. influenza
and heart strain had complicated
the old fighters condition.
From around the world, express
sions of sympathy poured in to
the family of the field marshal
twice prime minister of the Union
of South Africa. statesman, phil
osopher, counselor of kings, and
an organizer of both the League
of Nations and the United Ma
tions.
The messages reflected the
ironic contrast in Marshal Shuts
varied career, which started with
his leading Commando raids
against the British in the Boer
War and ended with his being a
bulwark Of the British Common
wealth of Nations. It was Mar
shall Smuts who in 1917 first sug-
gested a British commonwealth
apart from the empire.
King George Praises Service.
This, and British honors, helped
earn him the resentment of some
of his embittered. die-hard coun-
trymen. Shattering political de-
feats in the past two years left
their physical mark on "the boss, -
as Marshal Smuts once was
known at home.
From Balmoral, Scotland, King
George VI sent condolences to
Mrs. SHUTS. noting of the field
marshal that I'm peace or in war,
his counsel and his friendship
were of inestimable value both to
my father and to myself :"
There were messages from Brit
ish Prime Minister Clement Att
lee. Winston Churchill, Canadian
Prime Minister Louis st. Laurent,
and British Ambassador Sir Oliver
Franks in Washington. u. N.
Secretary General Trygve Lie and
other leaders at Lake Success paid
tribute to Marshal Smuts as one
of the founders of the world peace
organization.
The death of Marshal SHUTS
ended the long military political
career of a leader who once was
described as "a great rock in q
weary world"
Following World War II, he
closed his public life in the in
terests of peace on a global scale,
He deplored the current split
among the nations of the world
and was fearful of another world
war.
Mankind is now visibly
splitting into two worlds" he said
on Empire Day two years ago.
The curtain divides them. The
curtain stands for fear, the fear
which divides the Communist or
totalitarian world from the free
peoples of the West and the
U. S. S. R. in the east, while the
Far East is still shrouded in the
shadows of the future"
Small Nations Leader.
In his efforts for peace, Marshal
SHUTS was an outstanding leader
among the small nations at San
Francisco when the United Ma
tior1s was born in 1945. He wrote
the preamble to the U. N. Charter
that was adopted at the San
Francisco conference.
Evidence that he long had been
a worker for world peace is shown
by the fact that, after World War
I. he had share in planning the
League of Nations.
: Marshal SHUTS was born on a
farm near Capetown and, al
though he became one of the out
standing leaders in the British
commonwealth of nations, he did
not have a drop of British blood
in his veins. He was of Dutcht
and French-Huguenot descent.
In fact, it was his active mill
tary opposition against the Brit
ist in the Boer War U899-1902)
that thrust him into the spotlight.
Assuming the leadership of a
small group of about $50 young
Beers, he advanced into British