Letter, dated 1 June 1947, from the Prime Minister of South
Africa, Field Marshal Smuts, to King George VI following the
Royal Family’s successful tour of the Dominion
Transcript of RA PS/PSO/GVI/PS/VISCOM /08100/69/65A
1 June 1947
Your Majesty
I have delayed acknowledging your beautiful letter of 2 May – I was deeply moved
by it and wanted time to digest it before replying. Your Visit has been so great an
experience to us and has left behind so many precious memories that one likes to
linger over it all. What gives me most pleasure in your letter is the assurances that
it has refreshed you both physically and mentally. The Visit has therefore succeeded
in its primary purpose, which was to give Your Majesty a bit of a rest. I saw how
necessary this was when I had the honour to be with you during and after the war
years. The Visit has at any rate been a great change, even if it imposed a heavy strain
– more than I had expected – on You and the Queen and the Princesses.
The effect of the Visit on South Africa has been unbelievably wonderful. Every day
I still see this in all directions. However heavy the burden it has imposed on the Royal
Family, from the South African point of view it has been most worthwhile. While you
have learnt to know South Africa, South Africa has even more learnt to know the
Royal Family. And what a lesson it has been! The Crown, not as a distant abstraction,
but as a living human reality. I cannot conceive any greater service you could have
rendered South Africa than giving her this intimate opportunity to see what the King
and the Royal Family really are and mean to us. I therefore bless this strenuous time
which has given South Africa such a real insight into the heart of our Commonwealth
system. In the last resort it is a human situation, a living human link which holds this
vast system together. There is a personal relationship which goes farther and deeper
than all the constitutional details which lawyers argue about. This susceptible people
has begun to appreciate this. Europeans, Coloureds, Natives, Indians – all have sensed
its glamour and felt its pull. All are full of gratitude for this vision of Sovereignty at
the heart of our group.
You will understand how profoundly grateful I personally am to you and the Queen
for this great service to South Africa. It has – if I may say so – put the crown on all
the hard work I have been doing for long years to make our people realize this inner
meaning of our constitutional position. The Princesses too have captured the hearts
of young South Africa – and not of young South Africa only!
I thank you also for your kind references in your great Guild Hall speech to South
Africa and her problems. This has been a great service to South Africa, especially at
this time of carping criticism abroad. Your speech has also done Britain and the whole
Empire and the world good by emphasising the sense of mission in a world waiting for
a lead. Everywhere people have listened to your message with an uplift of the heart,
and a relief which has been very great. The Radio came through very clear, in spite of
the cold you were suffering from.
Thank you also for that delightful visit to my wife. How she enjoyed it and
appreciated the honour.
I look forward to another visit to the Brown Hills, of which I already cherish so
delightful a memory.
With all good wishes and kind memories of the Royal Family,
Yours humbly and sincerely
JC Smuts