sentences:  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 a Field Marshal of the British Army, becoming the first South African to hold that rank.Ultimately, Smuts would pay a steep political price for his closeness to the British establishment, to the King, and to Churchill which had made Smuts very unpopular among the conservative nationalistic Afrikaners, leading to his eventual downfall, whereas most English-speaking whites and a minority of liberal Afrikaners in South Africa remained loyal to him.