A GREAT REBEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 780, 28 September 1929, Page 10

A GREAT REBEL

WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES SUNDOWNER AND STATESMAN THREE days ago the Ri u„ 1 William Morris Hughes. p2; Councillor, King’s Counsel and time Prime Minister of Aus-rauf entered into the sixty-fifth year of hi life of struggle- There was «« national celebration of the anniver sary of his birth. The wiry Welsh’ man is a Freeman of to British cities and also a Grand Officier a la Legiou d’Honneur. but he is ncr these days, in the Freedom of Aus! tr-lia. The remarkable man Is a political rebel, a sniping Pathan in the politics of the Commonwealth! It might well be said that tht recreations of “Billy” Hughes ar* soiling, riding, potting the red at billiards and political invective. no one really knows the man. Even to his intimate friends he always has been more or less of a sphinx;’ probably to himself he is a mystery. n a enjoys the advantages and suffers the disadvantages of a dual personality This duality is rather different from the virtues of Dr. Jekyll and the vices of Mr. Hyde. It is nearer the fancied difference between the temperament of the Devil when sick and the. mood of the Devil when well. in hr Hughes's case, when the Devil is'weli he is delightful; when sick, however his opponents in politics gladly would * administer a cup of hemlock. But the leading rebel in the Commonwealth political camp is really not so terrible as many superficial observers have described him. Had he been Cain, for example, he would not have slain Abel; but he might have exasperated the simple lad into suicide. The writer of this article and other essays of a similar nature and purpose in the same column for severs] Saturdays had the rare pleasure of being an apparently welcome friend of Mr. Hughes at the Peace Conference in Paris and at Versailles for half a year; also, later, the lesser delight, perhaps, of being one of his publicity secretaries in Melbourne for a year. And one must write about famous men as one has found them iu widely different circumstances. There is no more likeable man any. where than Billy Hughes at his best: at his worst (to swear in the august company of the late 'William Ewart Gladstone) none more “damned and damnable.” MIDST HAUNTS OF HISTORY Let the worst be forgotten! It was in the forest of Fontainebleau, dappled with sunshine and shadow, where one, amidst the haunts of beauty and history, saw the then conquistador of the Commonwealth as one hopes the recording angels always see him. The laughter of a school boy, the flashing ripple of reminiscence, anecdote and the romance of adversity and success; and a perfect hospitality of thought and toasts in liquid sunshine. And what a wonderful career to look at through the friendly leaves of France’s noble forest trees! First a pupil teacher in an ADgliean school for boys at Westminster with memories of a famous master, but not altogether with the philosophy of Matthew Arnold, who, it has been said, based his religion on a profound faith in "the Almighty's well-known preference for university men.” . . . Then bad health in early manhood, necessitating obscure emigration to sunny Australia. Observe in quick succession an amazing series of hard work and harder experiences as a boundary rider, fence posthols sinker, rough carpenter, labourer in a vineyard. and a sundowner on a long tramp Horn Queensland to Sydney with swag up at dawn, and the billy boiling at eventide. Sydney at last, and the air and amplitude for ambition. And as the alert man sold books, repaired locks, mended umbrellas and, on a rare occasion, mimed as a supernumerary in one of George Rignold’s companies, he learnt wisdom in the best university—life, without sycophantic dependence on influential guides. Ten years after landing in Australia Billy Hughes entered the New South Wales Parliament. He stopped there for the period of four Parliaments as a Sydney Labour member. Under the same banner he was elected to the first Federal Parliament in 1901. Three years later he became a Minister of the Crown and a terror to Tories. Throughout the climb toward the highest branches he won distinction as secretary of the Sydney Wharf Labourers’ UniOD, president of the Carters’ Union and president of the Waterside Workers’ Federation; also he was a journalist, and none better at stabbing broad awake somnolent politicians. A HATER OF COALITION Kvery man hates something of somebody; Mr. Hughes’s hatred was concentrated on Coalition Government. He waged war on the DeakittCook fusion. The heathen raged, but the brilliant Mr. Deakin also had a penetratmg wit. The great orator silenced his angry assailant by describing him as “a greedy boy dragged screaming from a tart shop.” Time and ironic circumstances raised Mr. Hughes to the post of Prime Minister in a Coalition Government! Why scoff at the gifts the gods bring? War came and made him famous. Labour stampeded away from him; he became the leading Nationalist. One would like to recall his triumphs and rebuffs. There was, for example, his verbal bout with Mr. Lloyd George at Paris. Dog may not eat dog, but one Welshman can bite another. Who won? Ask wee David! The result is still secret history. R.R.