HANDING OVER THE HELM.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 113, 29 May 1937, Page 4

HANDING OVER THE HELM.

The news reaches us to-day tha^Stanley Baldwin, thrice Prime Minister of tlie United Kingdom, has carried out his well heralded intention to lay down the bnrden and the cares of offtce, As was also well expected, the reins have been handed over to Mr. Neville Chamberlain, who has so long and capably served him in the capacity of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Thus qnietly, without declamation, and withont any apparent fuss or bother, as if it were all just in the nainral order of things, Stahley Baldwin has made his exit from the stage upon which he determined that he should not "lag superfluous. ' ' Probably in no other country, and perhaps with no other man, could such a change have been carried out with so little of display. Mr. Baldwin has, as set out on another page to-day, fully and simply explained his reason for retiring. He feels, as he puts it, that he has "had his day," that he has given to his country the best that was in him, and is no. longer quite eapable of giving of that best. So the time has come for him to retire before other folk begin to feel the same about him. That in doing as he has Mr. Baldwin has followed the right eourse few will deny, There is. no question involved of giving up the fight at any critical juncture, for the outlook is very much better, both domestically and inernationally, than at any time for years. Thus there can be no suggestion . of any Bhrinking from any speeial responsibilities appearing on the horizon. He has seen the country through one of the most momentous stages of its history and he leaves it well on the way to the recovery of its internal prosperity and its external influenee. Sct may he feel well justified in seeking the respite apd rest ha has so fully earned. None the less, however, will the country and its Parliament miss the kindly guidanee he has given them. The withdrawal from the House of Commons of a personality such as Mr. Baldwin 's cannot, even under present_circumstances, but he regarded as a very serions loss, and this "may be said not only in a political sense. His example has had the effect, indeed, of assuaging many of the political asperities that have so often dishgured deliberations, in the Mother of Parliaments. The calmness and evenness with which he himself has discussed the most controversial questions has, to some apprerlable extent at any rate, been infectious and even his most rabid opponents have found themselves compelled to modify their own language. Thaugh loyal always to the political principles which from the beginning he espoused, or perhaps more properly inherited, he was nothing of a strenuous party man, but was always ready to see things from other folk's points of view and to weigh them up aeeordingly. As he told his constituents when farwelling them, he is still a Tory and rather glories in what that term, so often dispitefiilly used, means to him. A Conservative he is and must always remain, but in the true sense of the word, that of holding on to all that has been proved to be good. There is no hard crust about Stanley Baldwin 's Toryism, for he has shown himself as responsive as any f ar-seeing man of practical vision can be to the calls of changing times, Not atherwise could he possibly have established and held his place as he has done among all classes of forty miUion people and as the head of a coalition of so many divergent views. That place has been attained and maintained not by oratorical or rhetorical effort or by appeals to the emotions or passians of his vast audience, but by a sincerity of purpose, given simple and elear expression, tbat has rarely if ever been questioned. Mr. Baldwyn is prereminently a man that has made himself ''understanded of the people" and has thus won a popular faith in his singleness of purpose such as has fallen to the lot of but few British statesmen, even those of more brilliant parts. In the realm of foreign affairs these qualities have perhaps not stpod to him so well, in fact, have proved a decided detriment, There it has been his misfortune to have to deal with other national leaders in whom were to he found no sueh elements of good will and good faith, on whose word no dependence could be placed, and upon whom the most solemn treaties and pledges imposed no moral obiigation, It was a eharacter of sterner and less confiding stuff that was needed to treat with them. Thns under him Great Britain may have lost some of the prestige that it is essential for her to maintain, if only as a peaee-maker and a peaee-keeper. However, among the last measures of his Administration have been very definite, thongh reluetant, steps taken to restore Great Britain to her old place of influenee in the councils of the nations. Already the effects are beginning to manif est themselves and, as iu other respeets, Mr, Baldwin leaves his country with its international relations in an entirely favourable position, and that without betraying any - of the principles for which he has stood. Thus he may look back on the many years he has given to the service of his country without self-reproaeh and with full assurance that he has won a place in both the minds and hearts of its people, and of the people of the Empire, such as few of those who have hitherto held his liigli offiee have eaptured, In " another place^', as one of '-Elder Statesmen" of whom he speaks, his wise eounsel and loyal support will still be available to his. old colleagiies, and the prayer throughout the King's mde demesnes will he that he may long be spared to enjoy the rest from his labours he has so fully earned.