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Fifty years after the death of Jan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa and for the last two years of his life Chancellor of Cambridge University, Commonwealth studies in general and history in particular is thriving in the university. The Smuts Memorial Fund for Commonwealth Studies, inaugurated in 1952, has been the backbone of the university's activities through its support for a broad range of activities. But it is accepted that despite his qualities and achievements he did nothing to promote the political advancement of the majority population in South Africa. Equally, he was seen by the Afrikaners as compromised in his relationship with the colonial power, while in 1948 the South African white electorate rejected him, much to the surprise of the British governing elite and the African National Congress. The author examines the contradictions in Smuts's character before examining British policy towards South Africa in the years after 1948. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]