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discussion at a much earlier meeting, Smuts had been mentioned. 

 I would rather have had some person prominent in science, I 

 had in mind the President of the South African Council for 

 Scientific and Industrial Research, at that time B. F. J. Schon- 

 land,* but at that stage this issue meant little to me personally 

 and I had made no comment. Now, however, I proposed the 

 President of the C.S.I.R. and this was accepted. 



After that meeting, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, 

 the late Bransby Key, asked me to give him some moments, and 

 as soon as we were alone raised the matter of Smuts, would I 

 mind telling him what it was all about ? After brief consideration 

 I gave him the outlines of the story. To my astonishment his 

 reaction was violent, and he called Smuts by names that had a 

 Chicagoan stockyard flavour. He then told me how he had been 

 treated by Smuts in much the same way, but with even less 

 excuse. Another of his own sheep ! 



This decision had some repercussions. A subscriber, who had 

 been led to expect that the book would bear the signature of 

 Smuts, when he heard that it would not, came to tell me that the 

 absence of that signature was bound to have an effect on sales. 

 If it did, it was not what he expected. I was told that shortly 

 after publication, in the larger centres those seeking to buy copies 

 were at times compelled to form queues. 



When the news came through that in the General Election 

 Smuts's party had suffered defeat, it was a shock to many people. 

 Even more startling to the world at large was the news that in his 

 own long-standing constituency, virtually a stronghold. Smuts 

 had himself been defeated, and by an opponent who outside 

 political circles was till then not widely known. After the initial 

 shock I was not really surprised. I knew why. His own sheep had 

 turned against him . . . 



• One of the most outstanding scientists produced by South Africa, born in 

 Grahamstown, a leading physicist of our time, the first President of the South 

 African C.S.I.R., virtually its creator, whose ability and unflagging energy put 

 this organisation in the front rank within a short time of its inception. 



