MEMORIAL TO FIELD MARSHAL SMUTS (Hansard, 26 June 1952)

§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Winston Churchill)
I beg to move, That this House will, on Wednesday, 2nd July, resolve itself into a Committee to consider an humble Address to Her Majesty praying that Her Majesty will give directions that a monument be erected at the public charge to the memory of the late Feld Marshal Smuts as an expression of the admiration of this House for his illustrious career and its gratitude for his devoted service to the Commonwealth. It is a year ago since the Leader of the Opposition, then the Prime Minister, proposed with the unanimous and cordial assent of the House that a suitable memorial should be erected in this country to Field Marshal Smuts. There is a rule—or at least a convention, and I think a salutary convention—that monuments to British Parliamentary figures should not be erected until 10 years after their death. It is better that the dust and stir and controversy which their active careers may have excited should come to rest, and that an after-view of their work should be taken by those among whom they lived and strove.
But this does not apply to monuments of great men outside this country from whose life's work the British people have gained precious aid, and towards whom our judgment has already been formed and about whom our gratitude is felt by all. They stand above the ebb and flow of daily life. The monument to President Roosevelt was unveiled three years after his death, and that to Marshal Foch after about the same interval. The precedents therefore fully justify us in acting in the case of Jan Smuts with the promptitude which our hearts desire.
I am proud that it falls to me to submit this Motion to the House. During 50 years I got to know him well, and he was in an ever-increasing degree my dear and cherished friend. I have on more than one occasion paid my tributes to his work and also to his memory, and I will not attempt today to repeat in a compressed or varied form all that is so well known about him in every part of the House.
His valiant fight under desperate conditions, galloping with commandos hard pressed month after month, for the independence of the Transvaal Republic of 2441 which he was a citizen; his faithful adherence to the famous act of statecraft and magnanimity which began with the Treaty of Vereeniging; his long and responsible leadership of the South African Union—those things are always in our minds. He was the man who raised the name of South Africa, with all its special, and in some respect unique, problems, to the highest rank of respect in peace and war among the freedom-loving nations of the world.
But, of course, my most vital and most intimate contacts with him were in the last Great War. My colleagues who served with me through those years, on both sides of the House, can testify how much we were helped by the profound wisdom and strategic grasp which he showed. In all their largest decisions and in all their best thoughts the British War Cabinet found themselves fortified by the spontaneous accord and advice of the South African Prime Minister, thinking out the whole vast and fateful problem for himself—alone, on his farm so many thousands of miles away.
It was a comfort to all of us, and above all a comfort to me, to feel that by this quite independent and commanding mind we were sustained or prompted in our judgment. I can hardly recall—and I dare say the right hon. Gentleman opposite will agree with me—any occasion when we did not reach the same conclusions by separate and simultaneous toil and travail of thought.
Jan Smuts did not belong to any single State or nation. He fought for his own country. He thought for the whole world. After our reconciliation and the Act of Union, he saw in the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations one of the most potent instruments for the future progress of mankind. He fought for us with tireless loyalty and never lost that still broader view with which his life story, his learning and his philosophy had associated him.
Certainly it will be a fine thing for us to set up here in the heart of Westminster a monument which will proclaim to future generations his faith and our salute.

§ Mr. C. R. Attlee (Walthamstow, West)
I rise to support this Motion which originated at the time when I was Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister has said, there is something rather exceptional 2442 when we erect a statue to a distinguished statesman whose work has not been done mainly in this country. It is always a tribute to work done either for this country, for the British Commonwealth or for the world at large. That was the position with regard to the statue erected to President Roosevelt, who had been a great friend to this country and had done a great service in helping to preserve the free world.
Field Marshal Smuts was, of course, a leader in South Africa, and we consider him today in the light of a great Commonwealth statesman and a great world statesman. One's mind goes back to those early days when he fought against us. It is remarkable how, despite that long and bitter fight, he entirely put away from him all ideas of hatred. It is indeed remarkable that those enduring hatreds more often are found in those who did not actually suffer than in those who suffered. Field Marshal Smuts, like General Botha, put aside all those feelings. There is another parallel, a man now alive, in Mr. Nehru.
Then we recall the immense service done by Field Marshal Smuts in two world wars. I recall very well, as the Prime Minister said, how often, writing to us from right away in South Africa, he would give a most acute view of the whole strategic position. But I should like to say particularly that he was a great lover of the Commonwealth. He saw in the Commonwealth something new in the world, a union of free peoples; and I know how he rejoiced in the expansion of the Commonwealth and its growth, and in the position of South Africa and later of the other countries that joined the Commonwealth. That is one side of him which we should especially wish to commemorate.
There is another, too. He was a devoted supporter of the League of Nations; he was a devoted supporter of the United Nations. It was my privilege to be present with him at San Francisco in the framing of the Charter and, as is well known, the drafting of the preamble to the Charter, which set out its principles and ideals, really came from Field Marshal Smuts.
I think, therefore, that it is altogether right that here in the centre of the Commonwealth and Empire we should erect 2443 an enduring memorial to a great statesman of the Commonwealth, a great world statesman, and a great man.

§ Mr. Roderic Bowen (Cardigan)
It would be presumptuous of me to attempt to add anything to the richly deserved tributes which have already been paid to the memory of Field Marshal Smuts by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition; but, if I may, I should like to say a few simple and sincere words on behalf of my colleagues to indicate that we wholeheartedly support this Motion and are proud to be associated with the noble sentiments which have already been expressed about this truly great man.