HALDANE’S RECORD

Hokitika Guardian, 17 April 1929, Page 5

HALDANE’S RECORD

A PHILOSOPHER WHO DID THINGS.

The “Autobiography of Richard Burdon Haldane (Hodder and Stoughton) is a remarkable book by a man whose repute will grow the more his life recedes into the perspective of past history. It is a sell-revealing record'of a man of the greatest reserve, and we owe -Miss Haldane a debt for having persuaded her brother, while yet there was time, to write it. For Lord Haldane died earlier than he should have in the course of nature, hut when we read this account of the colossal amount of work he accomplished one cannot be astonished that at 7,3 his physical frame gave while Lord Balfour, with whom he shared the philosophial mind, an actogenorian, is still with us. GREATEST WAR MINISTER.

The present generation thinks of Loro Haldane us tile man who was the

greatest war minister or our age, as a man who above all got tilings done, a reputation almost ludicrous to the older generation who think of him as the pre-war Liberal politician who knew more a tout philosophy—and everytiiing else—than anybody It is not given to many great men, subjected to almost

nation-wide obloquy to receive so full a justification during his life as did Lord Haldane, a vindication which began on tfie day when Lord Haig rode through the streets of London witii his troops in triumph. Lord Haldane in tiiat voluntary retirement to which lie had so quietly betaken himself when the yellow Press hounded him down, was sitting alone in his study at Queen Anne’s Gate when a servant annouijeed tiiat an officer who refused to give his name wished to see him. I here iiad been warnings from Scot-

‘•••'d \ard against the admission of unknown visitors, hut Ijord Haldane told the servant to show the officer up. v \\ hat was his surprise when Lord Haig himself entered !

“1 am not going to remain,” said Haig, “iny purpose is to leave with you a book in which I have written something.” And, putting a book in Lord Haldane’s hands, he went away. The book was a volume of his dispatches, with an inscription beginning: “1o Viscount Haldane of Cloan—the greatest Secretary of State for War England has ever had.’’ This is what Lord Haldane wrote of his treatment at the outbreak of the war: “Every kind of ridiculous rumour about me was circulated. I had a German wife; I was the illegitimate brother of the Kaiser; I had been in secret correspondence with the German Government; I had been aware that they intended war, and had withheld my knowledge of this from my colleagues; I had delayed the mobilisation and dispatch of the Expeditionary Force. All these and many other things were circulated. They could only have been effectively disposed of by the publication of documents, and to this the Foreign Office was at that time adverse.

“There is generally some reason for everything that happens. It was quite true that I had been a pretty close student of German philosophy and literature, and had much admiration for the power of systematic reflection which distinguished the German people. I had, perhaps, too often reminded my fellow-countrymen of our shortcomings in these respects. But I also knew better than most of my fellow-country-men the weak side of the German character, and the too great dominance in it of the abstract mind.” The phrase that Germany was his “spiritual home” became from that time a jeer by which the unthinking perpetuated the crass error that he was pro-German. Such did not stop to think that the Germany Haldane loved was the Germany of Goethe and Heine, of Hegel and Scopenhamer. That as a student, and through life, the study of philosophy came nearest his heart, and it was his realisation that at Edinburgh University his graduation in that subject was hampered by the professors then in power in the Scottish University that determined his going to Gottingen.

'From his youth it had been the family desire he should take to the law, for it was the tradition in a family of which Lord Eldon and other judges were members. He tells a charming story of his old nurse taking him while they were on a visit to London to see the House of Lords. “She persuaded Hie attendants there to let her place me seated on the Woolsack, and then exclaimed; “The bairn will sit there some day as of right.” “Perhaps so,” our Highland butler observed, “but by that time, Mistress Ferguson, your head will he wool happit.” At all events, for the English Bar I was destined by general family acclamation, and into tlie spirit of the decision I entered early.

GOETHE’S HAT.

Tn the mind of the Dominions Lord Haldane takes an important place owing to the part he played all his life in the judicial committee of the Privy Council. Was it a matter of luck that turned him in this direction? The fact remains that as an unknown junior ho was suddenly called to appear before the astonished committee, to lead an important issue affecting Canada. So young was he that the committee hesitated whether to hear him instead of liis leader! But they did, and to Lord Haldane thereafter were committed many other Canadian eases. And he won success at the Bar in spite of the fact that he had a squeaking voice and often a not too illuminating style. What was undeniable always was Lord Haldane's knowledge and memory which kept him right when men with more showy