Earl Balfour Dead

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 926, 20 March 1930, Page 9

Earl Balfour Dead

NOTED POLITICAL FIGURE Friend of British Nation TRIBUTES PAID BY WHOLE WORLD Vr.itcd P.A - Telegraph—Copyright Received 11.5 a.m. LONDON. Wednesday. THE death lias occurred of the Earl of Balfour, formerly Prime Minister of Britain and Leader of the Conservative Party. The famous statesman, who had been living in retirement for some time, was in his S2nd year.

The Earl died at his brother’s residence in a room overlooking the garden, where he had spent many happy hours. Before his death he ordered that the blinds should not be pulled down, and asked for his valet, James Coleman, with whom he shook hands, saying: James; thank you very much for all you have done for me.” Gerald Balfour succeeds to the title. Numerous tributes to the lade Earl Balfour include King George’s message to the Earl's brother, Gerald: “Lord Balfour’s death will evoke throughout the Empire and from many parts of the world a deep sorrow, which the Queen and myself fully share. It is the national loss of a great statesman and the last of Queen Victoria’s ministers. “I shall treasure his memory as a lifelong friend, a great and charming personality, and a wise and trusted counsellor.” PARLIAMENT ADJOURNS A British Official Wireless message says both Houses of Parliament adjourned today as a mark of esteem for Earl Balfour’s memory. No business is being done in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, said: “I am sure the whole House will grieve to know that Lord Balfour died this morning, and

I feel perfectly certain the House would wish to pay its respects to him, and to do homage to his memory by adjourning at once.” He moved the adjournment, adding that tomorrow he would take steps so that expression might be given to the tributes that all sides of the House would like to pay. The Conservative Leader, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, said he was convinced the Prime Minister had moved a resolution which would be in accord with the sympathy and sentiment of the whole House. Sir Herbert Samuel, for the Liberals, associated himself with the motion. The motion was put and the House signified its assent by rising. Tributes to the deceased Conservative statesman from leading men of all parties are published in the Press. Among the Conservatives is Sir Austen Chamberlain, who declares that in Earl Balfour, the nation has lost the finest mind that has been given to politics in our generation. WORK WAS NATIONAL Mr. Winston Churchill says Earl Balfour was the greatest member of the House of Commons since Gladstone. The earlier part of his political work was intermingled with party controversy, but liis principal actions were

national, and commanded the gratitude of all. Liberal and Labour members speak of Earl Balfour’s charming personality, which endeared him even to bitter opposition. Mr. J. R. Clynes, Home Secretary, says: “I do not think Earl Balfour has left a single enemy. He had the restraints of a philosophic mind, and. though subtle, was sincere in a higher degree than other men. He combined power with charm, and had ability of mind rarely surpassed in the House of Commons.” Messages have been received from a number of foreign Governments conveying condolences. From Jerusalem it is stated that grief over Earl Balfour’s death is perhaps nowhere more widespread and genuine than in Palestine among the Jews, for whom the memory of the British statesman who signed his name to the British War Cabinet’s declaration favouring the Jewish national home, will for ever remain green, no matter how the practical aspects of Zionism work out. JEWS’ REGRET The Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Council met to find a suitable form in which to express the sense of loss of the Jewish people. The late Earl will be buried on his estate at Whittingehame, in Scotland, on Saturday, when a memorial service will also be held in Westminster Abbey. There now’ remain only two ex-Prime Ministers —Mr. D. George, Liberal Leader, and Mr. S:*iloy Baldwin, Leader of the Conservatives. The rise of Arthur James Balfour, the commoner, to the peerage he adorned so picturesquely, furnishes une of the most inspiring biographies of modern times. The duties of high statesmanship had long since removed the careless, languid pose, accentuated by the lank figure, that made him beloved of caricaturists, and no one would just before his death label him “a. Parliamentary dilettante, a trifler, with debate.” The aimless sprawler on the benches of the House of Commons, the dreamer and academic exponent of the “Defence of Philosophic Doubt,” a book which, it has been said, was “more praised than read,” gave Britain the great political surprise of ISB7.

This he did by stepping from obscurity into the shoes of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and, acting the part of the strong jnan, suppressing lawlessness with a hand of iron while he administered the laws and instituted reforms with a determination that brooked no interference either from his political opponents or his own party. The late Earl, was born in 1848, the eldest son of Mr. .T. M. Balfour, of Whittinghame, Haddingtonshire, and his wife. Lady Blanche Gascoigne Cecil, a niece of the late Marquess of Salisbury, who became Prime Minister. He went to Eton and to Trinity College, Cambridge. He was elected Conservative member of Parliament for Hertford in 1874. In 1875 Mr. Balfour made a tour of the world, and visited Canada, the United States, New’ Zealand —where he acquired property—Australia and Ceylon. He first spoke in the JJouse in 1876, and was Leader of the House qr of the Opposition from 1891 to 1906. But he was not a good Parliamentary manager. He did not treat the members or the whole House with sufficient respect: he was often contemptuous of it. He considered it a first duty to support the Cabinet. At the election in January, 1906, Mr. Chamberlain had a singular personal triumph in his electorate (Birmingham) and Manchester rejected Mr. Balfour by a large majority. During his term the foreign issues with which he had to deal, included the Entente with Frfance, the alliance with Japan, and the Manchurian war. He also crowned with his Land Purchase Act (1903) the fruitful work of his earlier years for Ireland. During the war he re-entered politics, succeeding Mr. Winston Churchill as First Lord of t:ie Admiralty in May, 1915, and restoring the harmony disturbed by the Churchill-Fisher quarrel.