based on a sense of historic justice and constitutes a great act of historic reparation.’ It is one of the most wonderful functions of the moral and spiritual principles operating in human affairs. Yet, General Smuts, I feel it is only fair for some of us to consider at this moment that your supreme service to that commonwealth, of which you are one of its most determined sons, came only after you had stood four-square to all the winds that blew in your South African veldt, you stood up and by standing saved the mother country.
“No one serves Great Britain save by truth-speaking. No one serves a mighty nation such as the British people save as he stands with self-reverence, on right, most especially for those rights vouchsafed and confirmed through convenant with Great Britain. He is no friend of that mighty nation who would exempt Britain from the fulfillment of its moral obligations. He is a friend of Britain who speaks the truth to Great Britain, and reminds Great Britain that the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate are solemn and irreparable obligations of that great commonwealth of which your own country is a part.
“Had we stood in the last ten years, General Smuts, in not exactly the way in which we stood, but had we stood holding firm the weapons of spirit, it might be that we would not have been warred upon as we were warred upon a few months ago. The chairman has well said, and it might be re-stated, that there are some men who go down in history as great in themselves, yet bind up with the history of an immortal people. In our own day, in our own time, such men have been Lessing and MacCaulay, Balfour and Woodrow Wilson, Masaryk and others.
“You, sir, have earned our immortal gratitude, because it is the gratitude of an immortal people. The cause of justice is eternal, and he who wields its weapons is immortal. Ladies and gentlemen, was it not Emerson who said ‘the great are near’? We know them at sight. We have known this man spiritually at sight for a number of years, and we have known that he is that happiest of warriers who has warred for freedom, and General Smuts has given a great and mighty power to the furtherance of the cause of peace. General Smuts, may we be permitted to say to you, as you leave our country today, ‘May you be blessed in your going as you were blessed in your coming’.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
