THE MYSTERIOUS MR KERR

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1920, Page 4

THE MYSTERIOUS MR KERR

(By Evelyn Wrench.)

One of the most discussed men in the British Isles at the present time is Mr Philip Kerr, the confidential secretary to Air Lloyd George, who played such a prominent part in the deliberations of the British delegates at the Peace Conference and is still more prominent as a result of the Prinkipo discussion of tho past few days. As far as the general public is concerned, Air Philip Kerr is more or less of an unknown quatity, although in official circles he has long been regarded as one of the powers behind the throne and as one of the young men who have “arrived.” Pliilip Kerr beclongs to that class of young Briton which represents all that is best in our public life, and those who have tho privilege of knowing him have long singled him out as a future Secretory of State for Foreign Affairs should tho job appeal to him. Under forty, good-looking with classical features, intensely cultured, widely travelled, one to whose nature any idea of self-seeking is utterly foreign there can be few young men better fitted foi- high office. When his friends heard that Philip Kerr had beten selected by Air Lloyd George as one, of liis confidential secretaries they felt that a better choice could not have been made. During the term of Air Lloyd George’s Premiership and up to tlio meeting of the Peace Conference, Pliilip Kerr was always to' bo found in the Downing-street “Garden City.’ ’ —the name of which the temporary building in the garden of No. 10 was known, and there can have been few problems connected with the world-wide ramifications of the war on which Mr Kerr’s advice was not sought. It was just ten years ago that I first met Philip Kerr on his return from South Africa, where he was always referred to as one of the.most successful of the “Milner Kindergarten,” as tho distinguished group of young Oxford men were called with whom tho then High Commissioner of that country had surrounded himself. I met him lunching with a friend one Saturday, and as we had a few hours to spare he suggested that wo should go to a Kreislcr concert at the Queen’s Hall. On that occasion our conversation turned largely on music, and it was not until later that I learned to appreciate his wide grasp of Imperial problems.

Shortly afterwards, as. editor of The Round Table —that most remarkable Imperial quarterly, yvliicli has, I suppose, had a greater influence in disseminating reliable knowledge about tho British Empire than any other publica-tion-lie first began to be known in Lon don. In 1912 I met him again at Vancouver on his return from the Far East, and, listening to him speak at one of the weekly gatherings of the Vancouver Canadian Club, my previous opinion as to his breadth of vision was confirmed and my last meeting with him as' one of the characters in the “Two Gentlemen of Verona” in the Coronation Shakespeare ball came to mind. Mr Kerr lias spent much time travelling in the Ear East, India, the Balkans, Canada, the United States and elsewhere, studying world problems a fU Whether lie will ultimately decide to go into politics or not I do not know, but whatever his sphere of activities I am quite certain that hje will he working unostentatiously, without any hope of'reward, for the benefit of his fellovs.