A MAN IN SPATS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 10

A MAN IN SPATS

STANLEY MELBOURNE BRUCE SCHOLAR, SOLDIER, STATESMAN For the first time in a picturesq ne career from youth to wealthy man . hood, the Right Hon. Stanley jj e [. bourne Bruce, the only statesman in the world whose middle name reflects distinction on the city of his birth has met bitter adversity. Five days ago, former friends in his party pofi. tically betrayed him into the hands { of the enemy, and forced his resigna--1 lion of the responsible post of Prim e I Minister of Australia. | As a scholar, the Leader of the com- ) posite Government did not heed the i warning of Artemidorus to Caesar—- “ Caesar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius; come not near Cascahave an eye to China; trust not Trebonius. . . . There is but one mind in all these men, and it is bent against Caesar. If thou be’st not immortal, look about you; security gives way to conspiracy.” And Bruce “was an honourable man.” Many superficial observers In Australia merely look upon their Commonwealth's most successful political leader in a score of years as a rich man, who wears spats and the best cut suitings south of the Line. Thev have been and still are too prone to forget that Mr. Bruce has won the right also to wear the Military Cross and the Croix de Guerre avec Palme. He was among the first of Australia’s wealthy young men to get into the World War, and he remained in it for three years, or until a second wound sent him from Flanders to become a Federal member of Parliament for Flinders. Incidentally, before these adventurous days, the best Nationalist of them all not only had won his Cambridge blue in 1904, but also had taken the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and earned the right as a barrister to eat dinners in the Middle Temple. THE MAN OF WEALTH It is possible that from the outset of his distinctive career, Mr. Bruce had too much money to bother seriously about the law. His most intimate friends in Melbourne say that he has a private income of £20,000 a year. The man himself is so real a gentleman as to refrain from boasting about his comfortable banking account, and quietly spends his money both wisely and well. He drives hard with a brassie and loses many golf halls, and as an ardent horseman, who often has presented a fine figure in Rotten Row, he maintains a firstclass mount. Moreover, he is a popular clubman, and does not mind a flutter at Flemington or on the Derby. And he has saved his country the expense of maintaining a .Ministerial automobile and a chauffeur. As a youth his preparation for a useful rather than an ornamental career, was sound and thorough. He was educated first in the Melbourne Grammar Schools, and next at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In his early twenties he took his degree; in 1907, at the age of 24, he was called to the Bar. On returning to Melbourne he followed his father’s footsteps in big business, and soon became mamigingdirector of the Flinders Lane firm of Paterson, Laing and Bruce. When the shrill bugles called the aristocratic young man soon deserted the fashionable parade in Collins Street for the more serious parade on distant battlefields. There he won distinction, was mentioned in despatches and decorated. SIX YEARS A STATESMAN War caused most of the young men who took an active part in it to think more seriously of their nation’s affairs. Stanley Melbourne Bruce turned his serious thoughts to Federal politics, and marched into the House of Representatives in 1918. Three years later he went holidaying with Mrs. Bruce to Europe. His leave of absence was soon disturbed. Mr. Hughes, then Prime Minister, brought a storm around himself for having agreed to permit an Australian civil servant in the High Commissioner's Office to represent the Commonwealth at the first Assembly of the League of Nations at Geneva. A political S.O.S. call was sent in pursuit of Mr. Bruce, who received it, and thereupon rushed to the citadel of world peace. There, his work was so solid and good that, on returning to Melbourne, he was marked for early Ministerial honour. It came immediately in the form of the portfolio of Finance, which he held for over two years. In 1923 the Right Hon. William Morris Hughes lost his popularity and supreme prestige. Mr Bruce succeeded. So for the past six years and a few months longer, the Flanders-Flinders captain has controlled Federal politics in comparative tranquillity. Of course he has had weaknesses; too often he was tranquil in circumstances which demanded rage and ruthless action. And always he has been amazingly abstemious in the political passion for making promises.