History of South Africa (1910–48) Good Hope. Smuts took severe action against the pro-Nazi South Africa Ossewabrandwag movement (they were caught committing acts of sabotage) and jailed its leaders for the duration of the war. (One of them, John Vorster, was to become future Prime Minister of South Africa.) (See Jan Smuts during World War II.) Prime Minister Jan Smuts was the only important non-British general whose advice was constantly sought by Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Smuts was invited to the Imperial War Cabinet in 1939 as the most senior South African in favour of war. On 28 May 1941, Smuts was appointed
Lords Commissioners of the Treasury Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service. Other offices have historically been linked to the Prime Ministership but are no longer. Until Clement Attlee became Prime Minister, the vast majority of premiers had served as either Leader of the House of Commons or Leader of the House of Lords depending on which chamber in which they sat. As the power of the executive swelled, the need to have a legislative-oriented office receded. In 1942 during the Second World War Winston Churchill had made himself Minister of Defence, a title Prime Ministers would hold for thirteen years thereafter, but