The Oubass Takes a Plunge

Fresh from a great election victory (TIME, July 19), 73-year-old Jan Christiaan Smuts arrived in London last week, the mud of his beloved South Africa still on his boots. As he stepped out of his four-engined plane, Field Marshal and Prime Minister Smuts was invited to join the War Cabinet during his London stay. Said he breezily: "I'll be there."

Jan Smuts has traveled 100,000 air miles since the war's outbreak. For this trip, he may have had several reasons:

Old Friend Winston Churchill wants Dominion leaders (as the London Times said) "to withdraw themselves temporarily from national administration and bring their contribution to the common pool." Included in the "common pool" of Empire are such matters as postwar air power, midwar diplomacy, trade relations, soldiers' postwar employment, Lend-Lease settlement.

Field Marshal Smuts was apparently prepared to be away from home for several weeks. The Oubass ("Old Chief") brought some welcome gifts: a case of South Africa's finest export brandy for Friend Winston, another for Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he may visit. He left three cases in North Africa for Generals Eisenhower, Clark, and Teetotaler Montgomery.

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