Joseph Chamberlain.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 7, 8 January 1914, Page 5

Joseph Chamberlain.

GIVING UP THE CAME. A STRENUOUS POLITICIAN. 1-Bt Electric Telegraph—Copyright] [ (jnited Press Association J (Received S.4d a.m.) London, January 7.

The Right Honorable Joseph chamberlain announces that he will not stand at the next election. Mr Chamberlain, in a letter to his constituents, says he cannot hope again to do Parliamentary work, and the constituency needs a younger man. Tire announcement lias been received wit.li the greatest possible regret in all circles, irrespective of Party.

Mr Chamberlain’s health is noworse, * though he shortly departs for the Riviera.

His son, Neville, is likely to be bis successor.

His son, Austen, is also suggested as his .successor.

“HIS IMPERIAL OUTLOOK.”

“A GREAT POLITICAL FIGURE.”

(Received 11.10 a.m.)

London, January 7

The Unionist papers pay a tribute to Mr Chamberlain’s wide Imperial outlook'and unflinching courage. The Liberal organs ungrudgingly testify to the country’s loss of a great political figure.

(Tlie Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, for years a brilliant figure in British politics, was born in London in July, 1836. On completing his education at the. University College, London, he joined the firm of Nettlefords, the famous Birmingham screw-makers, and speedily became associated with public matters in the city. Ho was a leader of the defeated unsectarian candidates for the School Board of ■Birmingham in 1870, and in 1873 he gained his seat and became chairman of the Board. In 1873 ho also sat as Mayor of the city. A little later, on the death of his father, Mr Joseph Chamberlain, he retired from the firm in order to devote all his energies to public affairs. In 1876 he entered Parliament and took his seat with tlie Radicals. He speedily made,his mans and became a power to be reckoned with. From 1880 to 1885 he was President of the Board of Trade with Cabinet rank, and President of the Local Government Board until his divergence of views on the Irish policy of Mr Gladstone caused his resignation in 1886. In 1888 Mr Chamberlain married Miss Endicott, of. New York. Finding himself, after some years, in total disagreement with the Liberal Party in June, 1895, he caused some surprise by taking office under the late Lord Salisbury as Colonial Secretary, and in 1898 he publicly declared himself strongly in favor of an alliance with the United States. The negotiations with the Transvaal, which ended in war, occupied him ful ly until 1899, and his South African policy was one of the most controversial features of the British general election of 1960 and 1901. Mr Chamberlain had charge, in the year 1900, of the Conference for the constitution of the Australian Commonwealth, and in 1892 presided over the notable Colonial Conference, and in May, 1893 he launched at Birmingham his scheme for the revision of the fiscal policy of Britain and the adoption of a policy of Preferential Tariffs. In the following September, believing this latter policy to be unacceptable to the majority of the constituencies, he resigned in order to be free to devote himself to a campaign Tor the purpose of explaining and popularising his proposal. Of later years, though in indifferent health, he has continued to use his influence in the political world. His eldest son is the Right Honorable J. Austen Chamberlain, who sat for Worcestershire East since 1892 in the House of Commons.)