The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY. NOVEMBER 13, 1911. MR BALFOUR’S RETIREMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 77, 13 November 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY. NOVEMBER 13, 1911. MR BALFOUR’S RETIREMENT.

The resignation of Mr Balfour is probably the most unexpected event in British politics of recent years, and the Unionists will most certainly have great difficulty in selecting a leader to fill his place, for the position is by no means an easy one to occupy. Mr Chamberlain, Mr Walter Long, Mr Boner Law and Sir Edward Carson are all mentioned as possible successors, latest cable messages indicating that Mr Boner Law’s chances of being chosen may be considered best. Whoever may be selected will have to take up the mantle of most popular leader of the House of Commons in his time, Mr Balfour’s charm of manner, courtesy and consideration for others endearing him to members of all parties. Mr Balfour is considered to have lacked the driving force necessary to make a great leader, and this is put down partly to lack of political ambition. . “Give me my books, my golf clubs, and leisure,” he once wrote to a friend, “and 1 would ask for nothing more. My ideal in life is to read a lot, write a little, play plenty of golf, and have nothing to worry

about. If 1 could give up politics and retire to-morrow without disorganising things and neglecting my duty, I would gladly do so.” In political life Mr Balfour has been singularly free from bitterness. “He tells us with exquisite politeness that we are fools when we meet him here,” said an Irish Nationalist M.P., “and he sends us to gaol when we are in Ireland. But ho has such a charming way with him that nobody (~n aclp liking him.”. Probably indifferent health and the increasing strain ,)f his work as Parliamentary leader are the reasons for a retirement which is widely regretted. He has been for thirty-eight years in Parliament, and loader of the party in the House for twenty years, and for ton years sole leader of the whole party. Ho has been in the House longer than any other Minister since Pitt.