Remarks of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise at Smuts Luncheon

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, when called upon by the chairman, said:

“It was a great teacher who said that in the ideal state, philosophers will be kings and kings will be philosophers. General Smuts will be much too modest to say he is a philosopher. Of course he is no king. Is it too much to say that he is a philosopher-statesman, whose powers are based on those eternal verities which philosophers foresee and forecast?

“I remember, General Smuts, a most interesting word which I had with President Wilson about you before, I believe, you and President Wilson had met, and I said to President Wilson, just after he returned from Italy to his home in Paris, I said, ‘how wonderful it would be, Mr. President, if this ideal of the League of Nations would find its strongest support in the further end of the world.’ President Wilson’s answer was, ‘how wonderful it would be if salvation would come not ex-Virginia but ex-Africa.’

“There is one word that I feel like saying to you today, General Smuts. I think you have heard it often and again. I think it was Viscount Cecil who declared that the two great achievements of the war were the Balfour Declaration and the Mandatory system under which Palestine became a territory under Great Britain. What a privilege to have a creative part such as you have had in both of these achievements for after all your authorship of the Mandatory system prepared the way for your empire or commonwealth to take over the Mandate for Palestine in conformity to, and in fulfillment of, its promise, as embodied in the Balfour Declaration—that Balfour Declaration touching which we shall never forget—that you use these words ‘the Balfour Declaration is