Abstract
GENERAL THE RIGHT HON. JAN CHRISTIAAN SMUTS was installed on October 17 as Rector of the Uni versity of St. Andrews after the honorary degree of doctor of laws had been conferred on him by Mr. Stanley Baldwin, Chancellor of the University. In the presence of a distinguished audience including Sir James Barrie, a former Rector, whose address twelve years ago on “Courage” is still vividly re membered, General Smuts addressed his consituents. He delivered a characteristic speech on “The Future of Liberty”, and the students of the scarlet gown gave him an enthusiastic welcome and a most attentive hearing. South Africa and Scotland are linked together by many ties including the love of libertyâ “We decline to submerge the individual in the State or in the group, and we base our organisa tion of the State and society on individual freedom and the free initiative of the citizen”. Surveying the condition of the world as it passed through and emerged from the War years, General Smuts admitted that “mankind stands perplexed and baffled before the new situation and the new problems”. But in spite of all grounds for anxiety, General Smuts finds none for real pessimismâ having passed through rough passages, having sampled the world and human nature at many points, he remains at heart an optimist.
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Intellectual Freedom. Nature 134, 654–655 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134654a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134654a0