The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28th, 1925, MR ASQUITH HONORED.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28th, 1925, MR ASQUITH HONORED.

TilK elevation of the Kt. Hon. Mr Asquitli to a peerage is an honor and a distinction well earned. He is one of uhe outstanding Englishmen of Hie times, a great leader of the people. As the. Prime Minister « bn made the great decision for Kuglam! and the Empire "ben about lo enter the Great War, lie will be associated for all time with the history of tiiat memorable event. He was not the type of man to enter lightly on so great a venture. Intellectually a man of peace, the entry into war would he a last net, when all else had failed. For years now, Air Asquith lias been a great figure in polities. Ho has been a worthy successor to Gladstone himself, as lie was a worthy contemporary of that other great figure in British politics—A. J. Balfour —likewise translated to the House of Lords. Air Asquith was a great tribune—a champion of tho rights of flic people. Ho has done his country great service and as it was aptly stated in the cable message he further honors his country by accepting the peerage. Another reference in the. cable was to the loss of bis soil, Raymond Asquith. Aten-

tion of this name recalls a remarkable tribute by Buchan in his account of the second battle of the Somme, to this gallant young Englishman who gave his life in the great struggle for Empire freedom. Associated with such an honor as the country now bestows on the father it will not be out of place to the nobility of the son he gave his country:—“ln the Guards’ advance, among many other gallant and distinguished officers, there fell one whose death was, in a peculiar sense, a loss to his country and the future. Lieutenant Raymond Asquith, of the Grenadier .Guards, the, eldest son of tbc British Prime Minister, died while leading his men in the Second Somme battle through fatal enfilading fire from the corner of Ginehy village. Tn this war the gods have taken toll of every rank and class. Few generals and statesmen in the Allied nations, but bare bad to.

mourn intimate bereavements, and Be Castelnau has given three sons for his country. But- the death of Raymonel Asquith had a poignancy apart from his birth and position, and it may lie permitted to one of his oldest friends to pay his tribute to a heroic memory. A scholar of the ripe Elizabethan type, a brilliant wit, an accomplished poet, a sound lawyer—these things were borne, lightly, for his greatness was not in his attainments, but in himself. He bad always a curious aloofness towards mere worldly success. He loved the things of the mind for their own sake—good hooks, good talk, the company of old friends—and the rewards of common ambition seemed to him too trivial for a man’s care. He was of the spending type in life, giving freely of the riches of his nature, but asking nothing in return. His carelessness of personal gain, his inability to trim or truckle, and liis

aloofness from the facile acquaintanceships of the modern world, made him incomprehensible to many, and his fastidiousness gave him a certain air of coldness. Most noble in presence, and with every grace of voice and manner, he moved among men like a l>eing of another race, scornfully detached from the vulgarities of the common struggle, and only his friends knew the warmth and oyalty of his soul. At the outbreak of war he joined a Territorial battalion, from which lie was later transferred to the Grenadiers. More than most men be hated the loud bellicosities of politics, and lie had. never done homage to the deities of the crowd. His critical sense made him chary of enthusiasm, and it was no sudden sentimental fervour that swept him into the Army. He saw his duty, and, though it meant the shattering of every taste and interest, lie did it joyfully, and did it to the full. For a little while he had a post on the Staff, but applied to be sent back to bisbnttnl-

ion, since lie wished no privileges. In the Guards he was extraordinarily happy, finding the same kind of lighthearted and high-spirited companionship which had made Oxford for him a place of delectable memories. He was an admirable battalion officer. and thought seriously of taking up the Army as his profession after the war—for he had all the qualities which go to make up a good soldier. In our long roll of honour no nobler figure will find a place. He was a type of his country at its best—shy of rhetorical professions. austerely self-respecting, one who hid his devotion under a mask'of indifference, and, when the hour came, revealed it only in deeds. Many gave their all for the cause, but few, if any, had so much to give. He loved his youth, and his youth has become eternal.' Debonair and brilliant and brave, he is now part of that immortal England which knows not age or weariness or defeat.” Here we see the mention of a name which perhaps lias suggested to Mr Asquith why he should, most appropriately of n;l 1, take the name of Oxford for his new and worthy honor.