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Quote#Sadness

At the vital moment there seems to be a failure of leadership, and…

Quote byJan Christiaan Smuts · 1870–1950

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Smuts to Mary Murray, wife of Gilbert Murray, on the Treaty of Versailles, 2 June 1919, as cited in Antony Lentin, 2010, Jan Smuts – Man of courage and vision, p. 106..

English (original)

At the vital moment there seems to be a failure of leadership, and also a failure of the general human spirit among the peoples. I hope I am wrong, but I have a sense of impending calamity, a fear that the war was only the vanguard of calamity ... I cannot look at that draft treaty without a sense of grief and shame.

— Jan Christiaan Smuts

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