GREAT STATESMAN

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1930, Page 5

GREAT STATESMAN

TRIBUTE TO LORD CECIL

, LONDON, October ,/3b\ A circular has been issued inviting subscriptions for the purpose of pitying honour to Viscount Cecil of Chelwood by having his portrait painted with a view to its ultimate inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery. It is believed that a large number of Lord Cecil's fellow-countrymen would be glad of some opportunity of doing him honour and publicly recognising him as one of the great creative statesmen of this age, since Lord Cecil’s services both to his own people and to mankind at large are known to all. LABOURS FOR PEACE. At the Pen.ce Conference in 1919 his conduct of the debates and negotiations that took place was recognised by everyone to be the- principal factor in securing agreement on the terms of the Covenant, and thus in securing the establishment of the league itself. He was a member of the organising committee that supervised the creation of the secretariat of the league, and since the league began its work has been a delegate to every assembly except two. As joint President with Lord Grey of the League of Nations Union, be lias been closely identified with tlie efforts to secure the whole-hearted support of the League by British people. AVON PEACE PRIZE. These services received formal international recognition when he was made the first recipient of the^ Woodrow AVilson Peace. Prize in 1920. But beyond all these services it is desired to commemorate Lord Cecil as the embodiment of a. new international spirit, a spirit of conciliation which alone can exercise the spirit oi conflict. His work has kept him in n real sense above party politics, and it is therefore with the support of the lenders of nil the political parties in the State that this appeal is addressed to * men and women of every shade of thought.