BOOKS
- Holistic Living: Tips for Youth (Excerpt)
- The New Village (Excerpt)
- The Modern Roots of Holism (Excerpt)
- The Ancient Roots of Holism (Excerpt)
- American Determinism: Holistic Politics
The Modern Roots of Holism
From Chapter Six, "The Relied Upon International Statesman":
The World War I era was Smuts' most important or influential time in world affairs and would be the basis for all of his future work internationally. English heads of state and members of the royal family utterly respected the South African politician, which allowed him to apply his skills to international governance directly. If Winston Churchill was to die while in office, Churchill and the Queen declared, Smuts should replace him as political head of the Commonwealth.
He'd been invited to the Imperial War Cabinet in 1917 and again in 1939. By 1918, he was instrumental in the creation of the Royal Air Force.
Before the close of World War I, he'd spent two consecutive years in England serving as a key member of the Cabinet after already serving as a General in 1914, the year he put down the Maritz Rebellion, and thereafter with Botha, the two led the South African army into battle, conquering German South West Africa.
Smuts was criticized, however, for a prolonged battle in 1916, led against German East Africa, for using 'flanking movements instead of frontal attacks.' According to his Chief Intelligence Officer, Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, the maneuvers were many times more costly and resulted in thousands of lives lost to disease. As evidenced from his letters, it would move Smuts to consider the merit of holism in practical terms with the utmost sincerity. He was chosen shortly thereafter, by early 1917, for the Cabinet, where he functioned as statesman and strategist. Then again, in the Second World War, 1941, Smuts also became the first South African to hold the rank of Field Marshall for the British Army. That honor he claimed would never mean as much to him as the years he served as General in the Second Boer War and First World War, times about which he at least felt he earned his stripes and would tell stories about to his kids and grandkids.ii
At the Paris Peace Conference, in 1919, at World War I's termination, Smuts and Botha, Botha having also been invited to the Cabinet, but who chose to stay in South Africa, each debated tirelessly that Germany shouldn't receive too harsh of reparations at its defeat and should be invited back into the fold via the League of Nations - to keep the former world power from becoming alienated. Its possible the two gained their insight from the close of the Second Boer War, when they negotiated with England concerning what amount of aid the South African Republics, nearly annexed by the British, would be granted for reconstruction, and what amnesty there would be for rebels. The terms eventually received, in that case, were generous. But Botha had to first write an article in The Contemporary Review, “The Boers and the Empire,” describing what benefits would come from a more conciliatory attitude on the part of the British.iii
Given a number of Afrikaners have German ancestral roots, Smuts and Botha might have been more encouraged to look at the whole of the unfolding of events regarding reparations. Both the leaders, on the other hand, were Anglicized and very much on the side of the Allies, so a general sympathy for Germans on their part, is less likely. South Africa, meanwhile, was not as badly beat up as Germany's European neighbors, the war's ultimate victors, and to whom Woodrow Wilson, for his part, went so far as to suggest each side “accept peace without victory.”
Smuts explicitly referred, pertaining to the outcome of World War I peace terms, to the “scandalous Brest-Litovsk Treaty that thoroughly disillusioned and demoralized the German homefront,” as an example of why else not to punish Germany beyond reasonable measures. Brest-Litovsk was an agreement with lasting implications, finalized on March 3, 1918, between Bolshevik Russia and the Central Powers.
On the one hand, negotiations hadn't worked according to the Bolshevik's plans and didn't raise up a worker's revolution, which sidelined the far-leftist Bolsheviks. The treaty simultaneously failed to fully meet the needs of any one side. In due course, Russia lost a quarter of its territory and industry, and precious natural resources and mines, and was forced in the following year to pay hefty reparations to Germany. Much of the lost Russian territory grew into independent states with the later signing of the Armistice with the Allies, on November 11, 1918. Meanwhile, leading up to the Armistice, Germany's Spring Offensive, it was claimed, weakened the plans of Brest-Litovsk. Originally, Germany sent its military to occupy the newly acquired lands at the Western front, causing fear among the Allies, but with the Armistice the military was required to abandon lands gained, and so ultimately pulled out from what were already costly exploits. Perhaps who benefited most from the Treaty in the short-term were the Allies, who also chose to not sit at its negotiating table, leaving Russia to settle matters by herself.
Brest-Litovsk, which Smuts considered a failed treaty, lasted only eight months, with each of the frustrated parties duly abandoning it. The Allies, after witnessing the Germans negotiate harsh terms with Russia, had become ever more determined to defeat the Central Powers to avoid similar measures.iv v
The suggestion Smuts gave to key attendees at the Paris conference, regarding the risk of alienating Germany, he felt passionate about. But the same advice, which he continued to make in the years following the signing of the Versailles Treaty, was not his greatest contribution.
He made multiple attempts in writing to influence England's Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, and the American President, Wilson, having earned both of their respect and ears, in the months and years before, and for much of the duration of, the conference. In December 1918, Smuts delivered into the hands of George and Wilson the latest and clearest peace proposal, which he'd initially been asked to prepare on behalf of the British Cabinet, in 1917, based on an earlier talk he gave.
It was a sixty-page pamphlet called, The League of Nations, A Practical Suggestion.vi Passion-filled conversations with the heads of states accompanied his presentations of the subsequent and targeted proposals, and he would still write more notes and amendments in the course of the conference for the more luminary leaders.
The proposal drew from his theorizing about creating a sustainable world peace and plotted in no uncertain terms a course to take in the upcoming negotiations. It, on the one hand, was a compilation of incorporated wisdom from those proposals already circulating in England for a League-like body. But it seems to have by and large held Smuts' signature mark, and contained his own ideas insofar as he might have gone further than most any other man to apply one man's philosophy to the founding documents for the creation of the first world body, with great precedence for what would become the United Nations.
It's interesting to think of how Smuts became the relied upon international statesman, to the extent he did. Dating back to his days in Cambridge, as a law student, he'd been a supporter of Imperial England. He undoubtedly admired Western civilization very much, and more so as the years passed. But Smuts, too, saw the futility of not having a good degree of independence for a native people who had a sincere love, understanding and appreciation, for the land on which they lived, and so he valiantly fought for autonomy and unity abroad. Regarding Britain, he remained tied to her liberal-leaning policies in terms of cultural advances and riches, while his vision was one of many autonomous nations and dominions as members of a well-organized, peacefully, co-existing Commonwealth. In fact, he was responsible, at the Imperial Conference of 1918, for persuading the English they should transition from an Empire with a strong executive to a Commonwealth of nations. The League proposal he presented might be viewed as a further extrapolation of the idea for a Commonwealth, albeit an extension of it included a more complex framework for the purpose of maintaining relations between states, he also thought was based upon the two ideas that were determined must guide the League, “no annexations, and the self-determination of nations.”*
Foonote:
*Smuts' ongoing desire to absorb South West Africa into South Africa, and develop a Pan-Africanism, was arguably remarkably separate from the mandates proposition, which was to avoid direct annexation, that was part of World War I peace talks. South West Africa might have helped Smuts attain to a more fair justice and equity amongst South African people of all races, discouraging exploitation of resources by too hungry of capitalists and potential war-mongering.
Return to Text:
Smuts had wanted to pursue the most enlightened mandate system he could dream up, since there was an overwhelming demand for it, but it would still be a plan with shortcomings, which Wilson uniquely envisioned the absence of, as evidenced by his Fourteen Points:vii
On the latter point, Wilson viewed things differently, and might have begun to inform Smuts' thinking on the subject, “self-determination.” Wilson, unlike Smuts, didn't think in terms of gradual implementation of equality between modern and undeveloped states, in accordance with stages or levels.
Wilson's Fourteen Points
Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.
Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.
The removal, of all economic barriers and the establishment of equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.
A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.
All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all.
A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.
Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into.
The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees.
An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.
A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.
Smuts' League proposal, which inspired Wilson's Fourteen Points, contains many progressive ideas, the mandate system being perhaps one of its elements Wilson sought to ignore.
Smuts, in the end, is frequently credited with having shared with Wilson many of the ideas Wilson, as chair of the committee to shape the League, incorporated into his speeches, save the unwanted mandate system, which just never met with Wilson's nod of approval.
It took some twisting of Wilson's arm, actually, by Smuts, who Wilson appointed to the committee for the mandate system, to have it included.
Smuts, mind you, was dissatisfied with the final terms written into the Treaty of Versailles, and to a lesser degree with the Covenant of the League tucked into it, and considered abandoning his ministerial post in protest over what he thought was the pettiness of participants in negotiations, though he didn't fault Wilson, who also became sick by the beginning of the peace talks.
iiWikipedia contributors. "Jan Smuts." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Jan. 2010. Web. 20 Jan. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Smuts
iii“Louis Botha,” South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid Building Democracy, from South African History Online, 20 Jan. 2010 <http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/
people.php?id=125>.ivWikipedia contributors. "Treaty of Brest-Litovsk." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Jan. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_
Brest-Litovskv“Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,” United States History, 3 Mar. 1918, 22 Jan. 2010 <http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1341.html>.
viLieut.-Gen. and Rt. Hon. Jan Christiaan Smuts, P.C., The League of Nations, A Practical Suggestion, (New York: The Nation Press, Inc., 1919) Google books, 28 Jan. 2010 <http://books.google.com/books?id=
NSAuAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=
smuts+league+of+nations+a+practical+
suggestion&source=bl&ots=
1BFJREUbSP&sig=FJcQ273ly9KdynLTFErE69
qYWQA&hl=en&ei=hvNYS9O-LsiY8Abwuv28Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=
result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=
onepage&q=&f=false>.vii Wikipedia contributors. "Fourteen Points." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Mar. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Fourteen_Points&oldid=543687598
The Modern Roots of Holism will be available soon.