MR LLOYD-GEORGE TO-DAY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9478, 22 June 1909, Page 2

MR LLOYD-GEORGE TO-DAY.

an INTERESTING 'PERSON.

ALITY

When at twelve minutes to four this afternoon (wrote the , Parliamentary correspondent of the London Mail, on 2V)th April) a slightly built man rises from the Treasury bench to the table of the House of Commons a crowded Assembly will give a generous cheer to one who in the course cf twenty years has climbed from the position of .an obscure solicitor to become the statesman who handles the country’s wealth.

Mr Lloyd-George makes a dramatic entry with his first Budget, tor he has to unfold what may be the most important financial proposals of a generation. Here, then, is a prospect [to shake the nerves of the most hardened public man. It may safely be prophesied that Mr Lloyd-George will not be shaken; he will he stimulated. Whatever may be urged against the Chancellor of the Exohequer no one can deny his force of will, his courage, and his power or rising to emergency. Most people now know the outline of the strenuous upward struggles of the man who, left an orphan in infancy and possessing no social or other external advantages, has made himself Chancellor of the Exchequer at forty-five. In view of his position to-day, [however, one or two outstanding facts are illuminating. When Mr Lloyd-George was a boy the nncle who took charge of his education was in some difficulty as to the imparting of a knowledge of French and Latin, since a paid coach or tutor was out of the question, It was hia ambition that the boy should become a professional man, and to pass a preliminary examination. French and Latin were necessary. It says something for the family fibre that this uncle, who was a shoemaker by trade, himself learned French'and Latin in order to teach them to his nephew. His devotion was not wasted, for the boy’s qualities of brain soon showed themselves. His delight in conflict, in straggle, was manifested equally early with his intelligence. It is related of him how as a boy he led a revolt of Nonconformist children at school in reference to the teaching of some Church doctrine. On the great day of the school year, when all the county magnates were in attendance, the children under young Lloyd-George refused to utter a single syllable. That was now ho began leadership. He became a solicitor at twenty-one, and it was during the early years of his country practice that Jthe villagers came to consult him on a matter which eventually made him into a kind of local hero. An old quarrymau before his death had expressed the wish to be buried in the churchyard by the side of his favourite daughter, and the vicar, resenting the service of a legal notice on him, assigned agravr in a place usually set apart foe suicides. The furidus villagers at once went .o Mr Lloyd-George. He promptly advised them that If access to the churchyard were refused they should assemble in force, breakdown the wall, make their way through the churchyard, and bury the old quarrymau by the side of his daughter. They followed his advice to the

latter. Thera were legal proceedings, and eventually Lord Chief Justice Coleridge endorsed the young solicitor’s advice, and adjudged tie villagers to have aoted within their rights. MR LLYOD-GEOKGB IN PARLIAMENT. Entering Parliament at twentyseven, Mr Lloyd-George proceeded apace on his work of making many personal friends. Hia -ability iu debate, hia Celtic fervour, hia repartee, soon made him a power. He struck at his opponents with all the force that was in him, but he never shrank from blows in return. Nothing daunted, him. He was one of the most unpopular men In England during the Boer War, but he flew his unpopular opinions at the masthead, and even those who. deplored hia views could not withhold a grndging admiration to the forcefulness of the man. When he was appointed President of the Board of Trade some three years ago, there were many shakings of the head. Mr Lloyd-George at once proceeded to disappoint th« fears of his friends and opponents. He was no longer the fanatic with a mission, hat the keen man of business, untrammelled by red tape. He settled the threatened railway strike -and put through the Patents Act, among other things, aud was generally acclaimed. To-day we have to learn whether he h»s the calibre for still more important work. Whatever his political successes or failures, Mr Lloyd-George is one of the most interesting of personalities. Among the crowd of Ministers on the Treasury bench, he always sits side by side with Mr Winton Churchill, with whom he is on friendly and apparently on almost brotherly terms. They exchange whispered jokes together and laugh like schoolboys, while other and more staid Ministers, on either side of them wonder what it all means. Prominent aa Mr Lloyd-George has made himself in the present Parliament, there is at first glance nothing very impressive in his looks to indicate the great statesman. He has none .of the leonine dignity of the' late Mr Gladstone, no trace of the imperturbable air of power which sat on Lord Salisbury; none of the dominating, mighty poise of Sir William Marconrt. Indeed, he gives the impression of being one who strives to be without a manner; he cannot apparently be bothered to acquire methods or a demeanour which will make him into a character. “Let’s get on with business,” seems to be alawys at the back of his mind when it is not on hia lips. He probably pleases himself with the thought that he has no mannerisms, that lie is just a keen man of affairs. And yet he has an atmosphere all his own. MR LLOYD-GEORGE AS CHANCELLOR.

Picture a slim man with rather long black hair brushed back from the pale, "wide forehead. A short, cnrved-in moustache conceals a very straight mouth, and there is a firmness about the jaw which hardens a general delicacy of feature. Shining eyes of dark-blue light up the pale face, and they grow bitter and scornful with the same swiftness as they sparkle in slv merriment. In repose there is a certain boyish air about the Chancellor's face which it is hard to define. As soon aa he speaks, an extremely smooth ‘ sbiu breaks in)"> » (:')(■"<’<-»m■: >ittlo crisp- crosH u from being the picture of » rather thoughtful youth, he

tiolan. No oao is mora suave than Mr Lloyd George as a Minister, and he will go out of his way to be courteous to an opponent. When the Chancellor rises to speak, bo arranges his notes on the table before him, but having previously -packed his mind with the facta.,’ho sometimes hardly touches them. He stands confronting the House, and rarely leans forward wjtfh his elbow on the despatch-box, a cu?tomary pose with many Ministers. He explains his point of view to the Opposition in a gently ex’BOßtulatory way, as though trying to convince a naughty child with whom he desires to be kindly. ' Once in a way he will swing round with withering words to some Liberal who has criticised the Government, and will attack him with a sort of slow scorn. Or ho will turn to the bittertongned Socialist, Mr Snowden, and drop a dozen keen words upon him. For the moat part, however, he keeps away from bitterness. Bat there is always the latent power for it. Mr Lloyd-George certainly is a personal power in the House. He has a gift of real oratory, apart from his reserve force of swift attack. It is, however, hard to define the influence of a magnetic man, and he is truly magnetic. The slim figure of this man in his well-fitting frockcoat can always fill the House of Commons He can light up a dull debate as with ajflame. His presence gives a, life, to the Assembly. He seems to diffuse a kind of personal electricity. There is continually proceeding ffom him some strange vitalising influence which is causing hie opponents to straighten their backs, and which is taking the sleep from the eyes of tired Liberals, Meanwhile he probably prides himself on the fact that it is his views as a plain man of business that are moving in the House.