culties for him. His mind had a natural bent towards compromise on unimportant points, and he showed again and again an almost uncanny gift for producing at a moment's notice the form of words that would give body to such compromises. His loyalty to, and affection for, Gen. Botha strengthened an influence thus already very strong, and when in 1909 the S. African National Convention met to draft an instrument for the union of the four S. African colonies, Smuts went to it as a delegate from the Transvaal with a reputation for ability and capacity second to that of no other delegate. High as it was, this reputation was enhanced by his work at the Convention. He had gathered round him a staff of experts, had thought out a scheme of union, had worked out its details, was prepared to put this framework before the first meeting. Such foresight had its reward, the more because it was buttressed during the de- bates of the Convention by the same readiness in debate, the same clear recognition of essentials, the same natural disposi- tion towards compromise on details, and the same quickness in producing verbal formulae, as Smuts had already shown in the Transvaal Parliament.
When union was accomplished Smuts became for S. Africa what he had been for the Transvaal the right-hand of Gen. Botha, the first Prime Minister of the Union. His success, both administrative and parliamentary, in the Transvaal was repeated as a minister of the Union. As Minister of the Interior, of Mines, and of Defence, he bore the lion's share of the early administrative work of the Union. His Defence Act, passed in 1912, was a model of organization, and the speech in which he moved its second reading in the Union House of Assembly established his reputation throughout S. Africa.
Thus on the outbreak of the World War in 1914, when Gen. Botha declared for the most loyal support of the British Govern- ment, the bulk of the burden of organizing the military forces of the Union fell upon Smuts. It was sustained with complete success. The expedition against German S.W. Africa, and the crushing of the rebellion in the Union in 1914, both bore testi- mony to his capacity as an organizer of victory. He took com- mand of the Union columns inva'ding German S.W. Africa from the S. and carried through that part of the campaign with great boldness of strategy and complete success. Then Botha and Smuts turned to other fields of war. Expeditionary forces were organized against German E. Africa and to take part with the Allies in the fighting on the western front in Europe. In Feb. 1916 Smuts was appointed by the British Government commander-in-chief of the Imperial forces operating in German E. Africa. He had been offered the appointment in Nov. 1915, but had then declined. When he took command, the opera- tions against German E. Africa had reached a state of stalemate. He conducted his campaign with great vigour, exacting from his troops heavy sacrifices of long marching in that trying cli- mate, and before the end of 1916 he had reduced the German forces to the position of fugitive bands. Then another duty called him away from E. Africa. At the end of 1916 Mr. Lloyd George became Prime Minister of Great Britain and at once summoned the Imperial War Cabinet. General Smuts went to it as the representative of S. Africa. So useful did he prove himself to be in that position that he became the only perma- nent Dominion member of the Imperial War Cabinet. With Botha he represented S. Africa at the Peace Conference in Paris, and returned to S. Africa after peace was signed, only to lose Botha almost immediately and to find himself, by the sudden death of his leader and close friend, Prime Minister of the Union in Sept. 1919.
The political position in S. Africa was menacing. The Nation- alist agitation, led by Gen. Hertzog, had grown among the Dutch-speaking people during the war. Resentment at being involved in the quarrels of Europe had fed it. The old passion of the Dutch of S. Africa for peaceful isolation had revived in full strength. Smuts speedily made up his mind that the sense of the country must be tested by a general election. It took place in the spring of 1920 and left Smuts and his party without the semblance of a clear majority in Parliament. Smuts held office by the grace of the Unionists. He had no doubt as to the needs of his position. S. Africa required an established Government; it must be formed by combination between his followers and one of the other parties. His natural impulse was for reconciliation with the Nationalists, and he sought reconciliation with them, but on one clear condition. They must repudiate their Republican aims; and S. Africa must remain willingly a state of the British group of nations. This condition the Nationalists refused. Then Smuts turned to the Unionists, who throughout the war had supported the Botha Ministry as the one safeguard of membership for the S. African state of the British Commonwealth of Nations. With ready self-sacrifice the Unionists accepted his invitation. The two parties were joined into one, the Unionists becoming members of the S. African party, which had been Botha's party and was now led by Smuts. The general election of March 1921 fol- lowed, and gave the new party a decisive victory at the polls and a clear and substantial majority in the Parliament of the Union. (B. K. L.)
SMYTH, ETHEL (1858- ), English musical composer,
was born in London on April 23 1858, the daughter of Gen. J. H. Smyth. She began her musical studies at Leipzig in 1877,
becoming a pupil of Heinrich von Herzogenberg, then conductor
of the Bach Verein, whose wife was an intimate friend of
Johannes Brahms. She was thus thrown from the first into a
highly intellectual musical society. Her earliest works, princi-
pally chamber music, were performed at Leipzig; her first orches-
tral works being produced by (Sir) August Manns at the Crystal
Palace concerts and the symphony concerts started in 1886 by
(Sir) George Hcnschel. She also produced a Mass, performed
in 1893 at the Albert Hall. Subsequently she turned her atten-
tion to opera, her first work in this direction being Fantasia,
based upon a book by De Musset (produced at Weimar 1898 and
revived at Karlsruhe 1901). This was followed by Der Wald,
produced at Dresden in 1901 and at Covent Garden, London, in
1902, and New York 1903; and The Wreckers, produced under the
title " Strandrecht " at Leipzig and Prague in 1906, at His
Majesty's theatre, London, in 1909, and at Covent Garden in
1910. Her opera, The Boatswain's Male, written for a German
theatre, but, owing to the war, not produced there, was pro-
duced in London in 1915, and was revived in 1918 and met with
considerable success. She also published in 1907 a series of
songs with instrumental accompaniment, and in 1913 four
orchestral songs. Miss Smyth, who received the degree of
Mus. Doc. from Durham University in 1910, became known
as a leading militant suffragette, and, besides other music writ-
ten for the cause, produced The March of the Women (1911). In
1919 she published two volumes of brightly written autobiogra-
phy and reminiscences under the title Impressions that Remained,
and in 1921 another book, Streaks of Life. On Jan. i 1922 she
was created D.B.E.
SMYTH, HERBERT WEIR (1857- ), American classical scholar, was born at Wilmington, Del., Aug. 8 1857. He was educated at Swarthmore (A.B. 1876), Harvard (A.B. 1878), Leipzig, and Gottingen (Ph.D. 1884). During 1883-5 he was instructor in Greek and Sanskrit at Williams College, and then for two years was reader in Greek at Johns Hopkins. From 1887 to 1901 he was professor of Greek at Bryn Mawr. In the latter year he was called to Harvard as professor of Greek and in 1902 was appointed Eliot professor of Greek literature, succeeding William Watson Goodwin. During 1890-1900 he was professor of the Greek language and literature at the American Classical School at Athens. From 1889 to 1904 he was secretary of the American Philological Association and editor of its Transactions and in 1904 was elected president. He became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Philosophical Society and vice-president of the Egypt Exploration Society.
His works include The Sacred Literature of the Jains (1894, a translation); The Ionic Dialect (1894); Greek Melic Poets (1900); Greek Grammar for Schools and Colleges (1915)-; Greek Grammar for Colleges (1920). He was also author of The Greek Language in its Relation to the Psychology of the Ancient Greeks (read before the Con-
