SIR JOHN SIMON.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 January 1918, Page 5

SIR JOHN SIMON.

A minor sensation /at Home (the London correspondent of the “Sydney Morning Herald” writes) is that attaching to Sir John Simon’s return to his highly lucrative briefs, his acceptance of a commission and his departure for the western front. Wo do not , know what it all means, but it is certainly very curious. Sir John Simon was opposed to the Avar, from the beginning, gave up his seat in the Cabinet on the question of compulsory service, and all along has been strongly pacifist. He iioav, to the confusion of his Radical friends of that brand, and to the mystification, of us all’ enters the army, the only explanation vouchsafed being the wholly unbelievable one that he is to be consulted by the British Command as to which German toiA'iis may be raided by aeroplanes without involving Britain in a charge of making “reprisal” attacks upon an inoffensive enemy! Sir John Simon is undoubtedly one of the ablest men in British public life, with his brilliancy very strongly founded on intellectual weight. Returning to his Cabinet office, he at once took 1 his practice at the Bar on giving up rank as its loading advocate, and his income from the high-figured briefs he accepts is y way of being fabulous. It is estimated, at any rate, as between £20,000 and £BO,OOO a year—as the imagination of the guesser varies.

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