Smuts was the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration

Ralph Zulman, Johannesburg

It is perhaps worth noting that South Africa’s prime minister, General Jannie Smuts, always harboured an affection for the Jewish people, whom he regarded as similar to the Afrikaners, in being godfearing, hard-working and without a homeland to call their own.

Smuts was the driving force of what became known as the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which became one of his dearest causes. He encouraged (British Prime Minister) Lloyd George and his foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, to issue the Declaration.

The Declaration contained an although ambiguously worded promise, that in the event of an Allied victory, Britain would establish a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. In 1926 in fulfilment of the Balfour Declaration, a Jewish national home was (in fact) established in Palestine.

Many years later, disregarding what many believed would have disastrous consequences, Smuts wrote a letter in 1948 to Colonial Secretary Leo Amery, lamenting Britain’s fumbling of it redemptive cause in Israel. (See Richard Steyn – Unafraid of Greatness p 86 and Churchill & Smuts also by Richard Steyn pp 237/8).