CHAMBERLAIN'S RESIGNATION. That Simple Tribute.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 169, 26 September 1903, Page 8

CHAMBERLAIN'S RESIGNATION. That Simple Tribute.

MR. Chamberlain, being the first Secretary of State for tihe Colonies who has recognised that the destinies of the Empire weie bound upi in the colonies, and who has worked harder than any Briton in the interests of broader Imperialism, it .s fitting, at this time, when he has rer linqmshed hisi great trust, tihat the various portions of the Empire should acknowledge his magnificent services. Mr. Seddon, probably with no other object in view than that of paying a just tribute to the genius of his administration, put a sample resolution before the New Zealand House of Representatives, in which he expressed what he might well deem to be tihe feelings of the country for which, among others, the great English statesman has laboured. > * » • In his resolution, Mr. Seddon care>fully eschewed the preferential tariff and other debatable matters. His resolution was simple, concise, unornamental. There were no fireworks. That Mr. Chamberlain has done more than any other English statesman to draw together the strands of Imperial unity his bitterest political opponents cannot question. Therefore, it seems to us to have been absolutely unnecessary for a small section of politicians to have brought themselves into prominence by endeavouring to discount the resolution., and force the House to a division. * * * It says something for the House, however, that it carried the resolution without any dissent worth mentioning. The members who forwarded tihe quite gratuitous and ill-timed cable to the leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, remark that many members were absent. There was, of course, no earthly reason why th* 1 members who were opposed to the simple resolution should not rush away, and be in. the cable office when the division bell rang. Anyhow, when are "many members" not absent ? "Some opposed." Dreadful, truly. Two is "some," but a bare coupio would not look well m a cable.

It was stated m the House, by one or two very scrupulous members, that the plain resolution was an interference with British politics. The Commonwealth "interfered," and the States of the Union "interfered" by simply deplor ng the loss the Empire had sustained in the withdrawal from the British Ministry of its brightest ornament and greatest statesman. We believe that the resolution, carried by an overwhelming majority in the House, was not an interference, and that, so far from regarding it as such, Mr. Chamberlain would be gratified to have the assurance from the least of the King's dominions that his work foi them w-as appreciated. ♦ ♦ ■» New Zealand's appreciation, as embodied in the lesolution, is solely a tribute to his pos'tion as Secretary of State for the Colonies, and expressed no opinion as to Mr. Chamberlain's views on fiscal questions. That the levelheaded statesman's conv'ctions are intensely strong is evidenced by his resignation, and his intention to, untrammelled by office, enter the field as .1 preferential propagandist. There would have been some excuse for the slight Opposition, the division, and the resultant cablegram, had the resolution embodied a note of admiration for his fiscal policy. * * * As it is, political differences might w ell have been sunk, and no discordant note struck in order to pay a well - earned tribute to England's greatest statesman, when that statesman resigns without heait, without quarrel, for the purpose of securing to the Empire a tariff which, in his opinion, rill save it from disruption, and achieve, in a great degree, the Imperial unity so desirable and necessary for the Anglo-Saxon race.