MAKING OF A DRUG WARRIOR - CANNABIS EXPERT JAN SMUTS

Jan Smuts came from a traditional religious Dutch Afrikaaner background. Not for him the fleshpots of his prospective Victoria College, Stellenbosch, to whom he wrote aged sixteen:

"...such a place where a large puerile element exists, affords fair scope for moral, and what is more important, religious temptation, which, if yielded to, will eclipse alike the expectations of my parents and the intentions of myself ... For of what use will a mind, enlarged and refined in all possible ways, be to me, if my religion be a deserted pilot and morality a wreck? To avoid temptation and to make the proper use of my precious time, I purposely refuse to enter a public boarding department, as that of Mr de Kock, but shall board privately (most likely at Mr N. Ackermann's) which will, in addition, accord with my private and reserved nature." [3966]

An outstanding scholar, Smuts' marks were the third highest in the Cape Colony in 1887, and he came top at Greek after learning a year's worth in the six days before the exam.

Smuts thought big. A year later this fat-headed, unpopular and insufferable-sounding teenager was welcoming, as leader of the debating society, a visiting Cecil Rhodes.

Smuts gave a speech on pan-African unity, a political philosophy very much to Rhodes' liking, showing a talent for flattery which was to resurface in later diplomatic adventures among various "puerile elements".

At University in England Smuts was, again, a loner who did not want to have fun:

"Smuts came to Cambridge at the age of twenty-one, three or more years older than the typical university undergraduate. He was isolated from the other men of his year by a different social background, different upbringing, and different attitudes. Smuts's disdain for frivolity and laxity combined with his lack of interest in sports and his decision to take up lodgings outside the college, did much to divide him from the other students." [3966]

"After setting up a law practice in Cape Town, the Anglophile Smuts was drawn to the charismatic Cecil Rhodes. After the Jameson Raid, he felt betrayed, and moved to the South African Republic. Transforming himself into a hard-line Anglophobe, Smuts found himself office at the heart of Paul Kruger's government. As confrontation with the British Empire loomed, Smuts played a crucial role in the failed peace talks." [3969]

The practical problem in the homeland - i.e. someone else's homeland that the Dutch and British had taken over - was whether the whites should stick together in the face of a vastly numerically superior black and coloured population, as proposed by Rhodes or, as in fact happened, end up warring between themselves.

Things fell apart after the Jameson Raid, an attempted armed invasion of the Transvaal initiated by Rhodes. The action was a failure. Smuts felt betrayed, and moved to the Transvaal in search of opportunities. He found some, got married, and fathered twins, who died in infancy.

Following some police brutality and treatment considered unfair by the uitlanders (British) Smuts managed to start the (second) Boer War. [3969]

"In fact, many western cape nationalist Afrikaners supported the British. Smuts decided to establish a headquarters and command as if he were the head of an army." [3969]

Though it turned out the Afrikaaners were not such great fans of his proposed warfare, Smuts did his best to keep it going, trying to blow up gold mines (overruled by a judge) and then the copper mining centre of Oklep with a train full of explosives, which also failed.

After various last stands and glorious defeats the undefeated British became conciliatory. Smuts ended up dominating the peace negotiations with Lord Kitchener, largely because of his command of English.

"1902 The second round of peace talks at Vereeniging end the South African War on 31 May 1902. Joseph Chamberlain insisted the issue of the Colour Blind qualified franchise for the two former Boer Republics is included, however this turns into a deal breaker for the Boers. The British attempt to strike a compromise and the initial draft of the Vereeniging Peace treaty includes the following phrase:

"The Franchise will not be given to NATIVES until after the Introduction of Self-Government.

"This meant it would be given to them as part of the future self-government package. The Boer delegation even reject this concept, General Jan Smuts in his capacity as a lawyer convinces the British that the Boers will address the matter in the future after self governance is granted (here Smuts is looking to the future South African Union) and the phase [sic] is changed again to read:

"The question of granting the franchise to Natives will not be decided until after the introduction of self-government.

"This meant that the all white parliaments of the Transvaal and Orange Free State would independently decide the colour blind qualified franchise on their own, only after self-government is granted them, and even in that instance they may or may not decide to implement it." [3965]

After downplaying the 20th century's "first massacre of innocents" at Leliefontein (31 Jan to 1 Feb 1902) [3965]; running three of South Africa's nine ministries (from 1910) [3230]; massacring some striking miners (1913); restricting black land ownership (1913) [3975]; militarily besieging striking railway workers then imprisoning and deporting their leaders without warrant or trial (1914); passing an Indemnity and Undesirables Special Importation Bill that retrospectively made his actions legal, clearing Smuts and the government of any wrongdoings (1914); putting down the Maritz Rebellion of pro-German Boers (1914); leading troops in the East African campaign (1916); joining the Imperial War Cabinet in London (1917-19); settling turf wars between British army and navy air services (1917) [3972]; wanting, following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918), to give Ukraine to Austria and Constantinople to Bulgaria [3984]; asserting American Commander-in-Chief John J Pershing was "very commonplace" and asking Lloyd George to put him in charge of the US Army instead (1918)...

"Not surprisingly, Lloyd George kept this unrealistic, even arrogant, proposal to himself." [3984]

...Smuts enjoined with Canada to slag off the British generals, failed to impress the French, yet continued to try to intercede between the civilian authorities and the military. Thus Smuts' military influence declined towards the war's end. After a good offensive in 1917 he declared victory - but agreed with Wilson in 1918 that victory would not be possible until 1919 and maybe 1920.

"Given the strength of nationalism, his attempts to redraw the map of Europe were anachronistic, belonging more to the Metternichian than the Wilsonian era." [3984].

But he was soon back, playing a leading role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919; advocating for the creation of the League of Nations; securing South African control over the former German South-West Africa; fixing Ireland (1921) [3968]; using or defending the use of air power to scare "tribal peoples" including, in 1922, bombing some livestock and killing some 100 Khoikhoi opponents of a dog tax ("the Sharpeville of the 1920s") [5627, 5628, 5629]; bombarding yet more (white) striking miners from the air (1922) [3971]; and telling the League of Nations to order the world to stop smoking that weed (1923 and 1924) [1530, 1919, 2074, 2101].

Five years after the 1925 Geneva Convention agreed to ban the use of chemical weapons, General Jan Smuts went on to predict in a 1930 interview that there would be no more world wars, thanks to...poison gas [3963]. And was described as "One of the finest fellows who ever stepped this world"... by Arthur "Bomber" Harris.
 
After losing the 1924 election:

"...Smuts decided to accept invitations to make speeches in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. On the November 1929 first leg, he presented three Rhodes Memorial Lectures at Oxford University, spelling out his views on white settlement in Africa and 'native policy' and lending support to the British 'civilizing mission' from a first-hand perspective. Not surprisingly, he took an unabashedly racist view of 'natives,' caricaturing them as 'happy-go-lucky,' 'child-like with a child psychology,' 'good-tempered,' and 'care-free' people who loved 'wine and song' and who had no original religious beliefs, literature or art, or desire to improve themselves."

W.E.B. Du Bois and other officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), made their feelings known:

"It was not surprising that Du Bois expressed a strong opinion about Smuts, for he had a long-standing interest in South Africa. While teaching at Wilberforce University in Ohio during the mid-1890s, he had been initially exposed to conditions in South Africa through a group of black South Africans students, and he had kept up on South Africa in subsequent decades. In a 1925 essay that appeared in Alain Lockes The New Negro, he lambasted Smuts for serving as a tool of British imperialism:

"Liberal England, wanting world peace and fearing French militarism, backed by the English thrift that is interested in the restored economic equilibrium, found as one of its most prominent spokesmen Jan Smuts of South Africa, and Jan Smuts stands for the suppressing of the blacks. Jan Smuts is to-day, in his world aspects the greatest protagonist of the white race ... he is fighting to insure the continued and eternal subordination of black to white in Africa."

...

"Despite being forewarned by [New York Times correspondent John] Harding and foreshadowed by [Harry] Dean, Smutss words at the Civic Forum soon became a lightning rod. His incendiary 'Negro has the patience of an ass' comment immediately aroused great attention and revulsion from blacks in the audience. Tuskegee Institute Principal Dr. Robert R. Moton, who was taken aback that someone he considered to be 'one of the most progressive of Boers on the race question' could have made such a hurtful statement labeling 'us docile animals:'

"'It cut like a two-edged sword through the heart of every Negro in the audience and also through some of the white people. General Smuts, you are a cultured and refined gentleman, but I would like to ask you about those words.'

"Smuts quickly responded that he had not meant to demean anyone. 'Far from wanting to insult the natives of Africa or any negroes ... I was expressing my admiration for the natives.' Another audience member directed a barbed question at the Field Marshal. 'Can the negro continue to sing and dance while the white man gathers diamonds, copper, and rubber?' 'Yes,' replied Smuts. 'It is wrong ... to make an inferior European of the native, who is justly proud to be an African. Leave them to their villages, their dancing, and their songs.'"
https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files/the_most_patient_of_animals_next_to_the_ass_jan_smuts_howard_university_and_african_american_leadership_1930.pdf [3973]

Some key moments in South Africa's chemical warfare:

"1896
South Africa's chemical industry is officially established, although earlier discoveries of diamond, gold, and coalfields had already led to a "rapidly growing demand for explosives." G. C. Gerrans, "Historical Overview of the South African Chemical Industry, 1896-1998," Chemistry International 21:3 (May 1999), p. 71." [3967]

"1915
South African leaders become aware of the tangible threat posed to their own troops by CW after battlefield use of chemical agents by the Germans on the Western Front. Ian van der Waag, review of The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and [sic] Biological Warfare Program, Journal of Military History (January 2002), p. 272." [3967]

As Tilman Dedering explains in "South Africas Secret Chemical Weapons Project, 1933-1945":

"Popular opinion in post-war Britain was fired by a vigorous anti-war mood. A broad consensus on the immorality of chemical weapons seeped into the Western public domain in the interwar period, despite some gas-tolerant observers who insisted that the defensive and offensive uses of chemical weapons were quite manageable. The proponents of chemical weapons argued that gas had become an inevitable feature of modern warfare. One of the early theorists of aerial warfare, Giulio Douhet, reasoned that the use of chemical and biological weapons was a natural corollary of air power. Douhet predicted that weapons of mass destruction were instrumental in breaking the will of the enemy population. The emphasis was not merely on physical destruction but on the psychological aspects of terrorising whole populations. The military writer Basil Liddell Hart claimed in 1925 that gas may well prove the salvation of civilisation because the dreadfulness of chemical weapons constituted a potent deterrent for any power to start another world war. Pirows colleague in the Fusion cabinet, Jan Smuts, seemed to have thought along similar lines when he claimed in an interview with American journalists in 1930 that another world war was unlikely but that future conflicts would be decided by poison gases concentrated in sweeping attacks on civilian populations."

"1936
Jan Smuts predicts the broad [future] use of CBW [chemical and biological weapons] after he and other air theorists take note of the Italian use of [mustard] in Ethiopia. Ian van der Waag, review of The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program, Journal of Military History (January 2002), p. 272."
https://www.nti.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/south_africa_chemical.pdf [3967]

With these cheery thoughts in mind, Smuts returned to government in 1939.
https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/91863/Dedering_South_2022.pdf?sequence=1 [3963]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_of_Jan_Smuts [3966]

"1941-1945
CW agents are manufactured by South Africa at the Klipfontein and Firgrove factories in response to a request by the British Ministry of Supply. The two factories have 1,697 employees and are capable of producing 250 tons of different chemical warfare agents each month. The Klipfontein Organic Products plant produces phosgene and mustard. The production of chemical agents and associated weapons is supervised by Brigadier General Van der Bijl, Director General War Supplies, and Brigadier General Van der Spuy, Director General Technical Services. After the war, the production focus is shifted to DDT and other insecticides. Ian van der Waag, review of The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and [sic] Biological Warfare Program, Journal of Military History (January 2002), p. 272; G. C. Gerrans, "Historical Overview of the South African Chemical Industry, 1896-1998," Chemistry International 21:3 (May 1999), p. 76." [3967]

Smuts' temperate view on WW1 strategy, at a time when the coalition had become entrenched in opposing opinions on the conduct of the war, perhaps has resonance for the stalemated war on CaPs:

"Smuts's firmly held view that wars are largely won or lost in the minds of men rather than on land and sea helps to explain his position. Under the circumstances, with Britain's continental allies wavering, the only way to get the Germans to crack, and keep the will of the Entente strong, was through a pounding of German defences. Alas, as Smuts readily admitted, ' ... victory in this kind of warfare is the costliest possible to the victor.'"
http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol054dw.html [3984]

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