THE PASSING OF CROMER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3048, 9 April 1917, Page 5

THE PASSING OF CROMER

'personal glimpses of famous

EMPIRE-BUILDER

HIS IDIOSYNCRACIES f

•■f he London correspondent of the \ Guardian" contributes Some-interesting personal glimpses of pheUate Lord Cromer, who, he says, '"may have hastened nis end by his ■Splendid and; characteristic .industry. fl. know of no more pathetically appropriate picture than that of the dying Administrator keeping the documents Relating to the .Dardanelles Commis-ffiion-by\his bedside and turning to them ppntiuually in moments of consciousness. No man may yet know to what Conclusions Lord' Cromer had como in ;4he Dardanelles inquiry, but: his general idea of what purposes such comtoissions. should serve was freoly im•parted to his friends. His standing jprinciple wns ; the nobly national one 'that tho only fruited kind of inquiry did not so much inculpate individuals as. disclose original sources of blunder. The political expedient of merely findjng scapegoats was to him as hateful las an insincere act of! whitewashing. j What always, struck one in conversation with Lord Cromer was the estoemo apparent simplicity of all political problems as he stated'them. JThe problems were seldom simple, of course, ftut he used gradually to reduce them jxo a;:single issue by cancelling out facjKrs and; discarding what he thought pinessential till,at last common sense [seemed to have only one possible ,ichoice in the matter. " In writing, he [frequently used too many words. Nearly : all inen lose precision in wordiness, ■ilat Lord Cromer was an exception. I Miever read a sentence by him that did .'Hot convey a single positive and indisputable- meaning. All the same, I his spoken word 9. finer mevium than his writing; s i . His knowledge of the classics wa= {acquired as a pastime almost entirely fafter he .had left school. Hβ was a rapid and devouring reader, aud a day -seldom passed without his reading j some Greek or Latin. He preferred j Greek.. Illustrations of the ■ moderni ness of. ancient things and the anitiquity of modem thiiigs always de4ighted him. While discussing some the- day he would 1 suddenly : ."How true those lines are" —and ■.then;he would quote from Homer or 'iPindar. y ' , : ; / . '. ' J His. memory was remarkable, but he jjreinforced it by keeping commonplaceifbookß, which were one of his chief de;lights. Everything that,instructed or ■tiokled him.went down into these '■books; whioh were scientifically indexed. Nothing waa too small to be entered if it amused! him. I remember, tfor instance, how he was enchanted by the, lines— ■'":''. Naughty little cuss words . •", Such,as "Dash!" and "Blow!" Just as much- as wuss words, ■' Point, the way, below. ■ Lord Cromer and Abbas'll..' ; The bitterness. of his duel' with the fcunning and unscrupulous Abbas II was greatly eased by his appreciation of Abbas's humour. He often used to relate how Abbas complained that som6 of the Italian masons employed on the 'AJssuan dam were Anarchists and had probably come to the country with the ulterior, intention of murdering the 'Khedive! "But," said Lord Cromer, •"if the Anarchists'assassinate anyone they are just as likely toikjjl.me.es: ■you The suggestion pleased Abbas. ''Tiens, o'est vrail": he exclaimed joyItously. •: iAid Abbas's pleasure delighted ■Lord Cromer. The Khedive.knew other moods, and once remonstrated with Lord Cromer for having a step on his 'carriage. The foarless Lord Cromer injnocently asked why he. should not have |fc step. . "Assassins always attack from 1 tFe step," was the answer. _ i - Among all the anecdotes which Lord Cromer used to tell of Egypt, I think he was' proudest of the remark of a peasant woman in a remote part of Egypt, who boldly resisted the exactions of a looal magnate with the .words: "At Oairo there is the mau I called Cromer, and he will give me jus- j Itice." •■...»" •.■'■'■-.

j ■■&. friend in public life who saw a fereat deal of Lord Cromer in his last years adds some personal notes. A characteristio was Ms promptitude as a. correspondent. Hβ made it a rule to repjy to letters by returnof post— &n unusual virtue in a public personage. Although, since his return from Egypt he rarely spoke on the political questions which most; interested him, rJie exercised a constant influence betJiind the scenes. JtfVd Grgy, was a Elaosfc intimate friend, and valued [greatly his advice,on matters of State, land he had a great affection for Lord .. /•■■■ : ■■■■• ■■■■■.-. : ■ ! "I: remember," this informant says, '"a prophecy Oromer made at the time of Mr. Lloyd .George's famous Budget *—1 may noE live long enough to see it, but, mark my words, Germany will wake war before 1918.'" Lord Crcmerjs standpoint in this matter was anxiety that we .should husband our national resources in preparation for tht struggle. Hβ also used to prophesy that Mr. Lloyd George would become leader of, the Tariff Reform Party, and Mr. \Vinston Cliurchill leader of the Free-traders. I Gromer and Cordon. I Hβ always spoke most highly of Gordon as a man; but^fsed > to say that the difficulty of dealing with him was that Gordon used-to live in the whole Bible. It would have been plain sailing if Gordon had lived, for instance, in Isaiah for the whole day. Lord Cromer used to say that he could always tell what part of the Bible Gor'don had been reading by the kind of telegrams he got from him afc different times of the day. In the morning Gordon would send a telegram inspired by the most violent passages in the Psalms about crushing his enemies, a teJegraphio prophecy ; from Isaiah in the afternoon, and in the evening a message breathing New ■ Testament principles of loye of enemies—in this 'icase the Hahdi and his followers. ■j "You can understand," Lord Cromer : Would say, "how disconcerting this was 'toah administrator."' ■'.'■.■ Lord Cromer was for many years ; the real adviser of the 'Anti-Slavery ■Sooiety. : His active interest in this reform began in the old days in Ejjypt. It was known that ha was greatly concerned about the conditions under ■which African labourers were to he ' brought to work for tho army in France. If thDro. had been any ini tention of resorting to anything like i the corvee Lord Cromer would certainly have been strongly against it.