Imagine receiving such words from such a man!
Not to deflect the thread from Churchill himself, but I would like to
add one other thought about Smuts. I became interested in him while
working up a talk on the Other Club, of which Smuts was a member. Smuts
strikes me as a man deserving serious historical attention in the
Churchillian context and beyond.
Smuts was the only person to sign the peace treaties ending both the
First and Second World Wars. He was the only person to sign the
charters of both the League of Nations and the United Nations. He was
not from Britain, and English was his second language. A statue of him
stands in Parliament Square. He was prime minister in his own country
(South Africa), and he became a field marshal in the British Army in
1941 and served in Churchill's Imperial War Cabinet. He led commandos
in1899 (?), and that year he interrogated a newly captured 25-year-old
(?) prisoner of war named Winston Churchill. He graduated from
Cambridge with a double First. A Master of Christ's College said about
1970 that "in 500 years of that College's history, three members had
been truly outstanding: John Milton, Charles Darwin, and Jan Smuts.
Smuts wrote a book in 1926, "Holism and Evolution." Alfred Einstein
read the book and subsequently wrote that two mental constructs will
direct human thinking in the next millennium: Einstein's own construct
of relativity, and Smuts' construct. Smuts' last office was Chancellor
of Cambridge University.
FYI, "Holism and Evolution" is available from Kessinger Publishing's
Rare Reprints.
Harlan Cooper
On 5/14/2010 8:21 AM, Paul Courtenay wrote:
Smuts was probably the only person whom Churchill recognized as being
not only on an equal level to himself, but in many ways superior.
When Smuts died in 1950, Churchill wrote to Mrs Smuts as follows:
"Please accept my deepest sympathy in your sorrow and
deprivation. I know how vain are words in such sadness, and how much
worse it is for those who stay than for those who go. But there must
be comfort in the proofs of admiration and gratitude that have been
evoked all over the world for a warrior-statesman and philosopher who
was probably more fitted to guide struggling and blundering humanity
through its sufferings and perils towards a better day than anyone who
lived in any country during his epoch."
Paul Courtenay
----- Original Message -----
*From:* richard geschke <mailto:[email protected]>
*To:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> ; [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* Friday, May 14, 2010 12:01 AM
*Subject:* RE: [ChurchillChat] Daily Mail: Half of young people do
not recognise Winston Churchill... and he will be 'forgotten' in
80 years
Good point,
While Smuts was very influential he never the less was no
Churchill. But your point is well taken. There are many figures
in history who were very influential and yet they have faded into
the abyss of historical legend. For example how about George C.
Marshall.
Richard C. Geschke
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 16:14:19 -0500
From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
CC: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ChurchillChat] Daily Mail: Half of young people do
not recognise Winston Churchill... and he will be 'forgotten' in
80 years
Students today are subjected not only to vapid history lessons,
but to politically revisionist history. For example, how many
today would recognize a photo or even the name of Jan Smuts, a
distinguished contemporary of Churchill, a member of his war
cabinet, and a prime minister in his own right? Smuts, who
deserved better, has been subjected to a politically-correct
purge. (What happened to Jan Smuts International Airport?) Why?
He was a white man from South Africa.
Harlan Cooper
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
On 5/13/2010 10:58 AM, richard geschke wrote:
The old adage of out of sight, out of mind plays prominently
in this type of story. Most people in America know the likes
of George Washington because we almost see him everyday on our
currency, same goes for the likes of Lincoln and Jefferson.
Most young generations see and sense what is around them in
their current everyday lives. This type of article in the
daily mail typifies the culture we live in, with no sense of
history. The lack of our educational systems to give a proper
historical prospective of just what has transpired is also a
major factor in seeing such articles in print.
Richard C. Geschke
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 05:44:08 -0700
Subject: [ChurchillChat] Daily Mail: Half of young people do
not recognise Winston Churchill... and he will be 'forgotten'
in 80 years
From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
It seems that we have a lot of work to do....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278079/Half-young-people-recognise-Winston-Churchill---forgotten-80-years.html
--
JOHN DAVID OLSEN
+1-323-855-7595
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