Resignation of Mr. Balfour.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 November 1911, Page 3

Resignation of Mr. Balfour.

BOAIBSHELL FOR, THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY.

VOf'YGKr; MAX XEF.IVBI)

[HY EL«CI?IC TELEGRAPH-COPYRIGHT. 1

[PKR PRESS ASSOCIATION.J

(Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, November S. Air Haliour announced his resignation at a hurriedly convened niectnig of the London Conservative Association's Executive. He explained that while he would retain his seat lie desired relief from the increasing strain of leadership. A younger leader, he said, was required, who was more capable of adapting himself to new problems which were perpetually arising. His strength was unequal to cope with the coming crisis. His medical ndvisors opposed liis participation in the Home Rule campaign. Air Balfour's resignation fell as a bombshell in the [ nionist camp, especially he had carefullv oo > coaled a;ny iinpatien:-• at the '-.ttaeks made on his leadership, and" Hals bury CI lib had even passed a resolution supporting bis and Lord Lansdowne's leadership in the com innstruggle.

Chronicle note.—While, no doubt, the resignation of Air Balfour has' as tic cable says, fallen like a bombshell in the Unionist cam]), it will be received with t jual surprise throughout the world. The recent developments in the Conservative party as a result of the abolition or the Lords veto made the task of Leader a peculiarly difficult one, but it is generally thought that in the process of time Mr. Balfour would again lead a united party. In connection with Mr Balfour's resignation, two views of his leadership ma v be given. One is in the National RevieWj from the pen of .Air Maxse a journalist, and a mouthpiece of the hai'ds. ' The other is from the pen of Mr 1. P. O'Connor, the Trish Nationalist ALP., for the Scotland Division of Liverpool. Says Air Maxse: "Every Unionist who possesses a typewriter, a pen, or even a pencil, should sit down and write to his member emphatically protesting against the present regime. The organisers of disaster in" 1906 were the organisers of disaster in ""910. J hoy remain the organisers of disaster in 1911, and are determined to organise further disasters in "912, 1913, 1914, and, indeed, for as manv years as Unionism survives their misleader.ship and 'mismanagement, laeir motto is "Perish." Perish P'T-ty, perish the United Kingdom, perish the British Constitution, perish the British Empire, rather than that ono of the great Indispensables and Incompetents should make way for somebody else, who whatever his drawbacks,'would avoid the fatal defect of being associated with unbroken and continuous disaster. Air. O'Connor says : "Mr Balfour is in his great position because he has earned it, and because he deserves it Never was there in the House of Commons in all its history a man more fitted for the chief work of a Conservative leader. His mind is essentially the mind of a Conservative—especially of a Conservative in Opposition'. Sceptical, analytic, with no faith in political panaceas, keenly alive to the absurdity and the hypocrisy of much that is in political preachings, lie is just the man to subject all new schemes to cold examination; and that is the main function of the Conservative leader in' Opposition to a Radical Government. Poor and ineffective on the platform, he is supreme in the House of Commons. Give him a debate to sum up, and, above all, to analyse; and then no | man in the Hioaise to-day can excel j Air Balfour. Applying that keen anayltie cold mind of his to the case of his opponents, he is able to reach the vulnerable point in the armour with deadly and instinctive precision." At the present time it seems almost impossible to find a leader in tbe House of Commons who will prove acceptable to the party. The choice may fall upon the Right Hon. Walter Long, a former Chief Secretary for Ireland, and a former President of the Local Government Board. Air Long (now At.P. for the .Strand, London) is an eloquent spea'ker, and during the time he represented Dublin County South, ho was the trusted lender of the North 'of Ireland Unionists. Air Austen Chamberlain, a good financier, lacks the energy and resoursefulness reel ui rod to lead the party to-day. The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour was elected for the City of London in 1906, and lias retained the seat ever since. He was defeated at East Manchester earlier in the year,' having represented that constituency since 1885. He was private secretary to the late Lord .Saliburvv, and •accompanied him to tbe Berlin eon-fo'-ence in 1878. On the retirement of Lord Salisbury, in 1902, lie assumed the leadership of the Unionist party. When Mr J. Chamberlain made his fiscal proposals iin 1903, Mr Balfour, holding that the country was not ripe for the taxation of food, committed himself and the party only to a policy of retaliation. Air. Balfour is the antihor of "A defence of philosophic doubt," "The foundations of Belief, being ivo[tes introductory of the study of theology", Reflections suggested by the New Theory lof Malter," etc.