BRITISH POLITICAL CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1922, Page 7

BRITISH POLITICAL CRISIS.

PREMIER’S RESIGNATION. THE MAN AND HIS CAREER. STRIFE AND ACHIEVEMENT. It would not be easy to find in the centuries of British political history quite an. exact parallel with the career and achievement of Mr. Lloyd George, the world’s nimblest statesman. He began his remarkable career with little more than a wonderful vitality, the first gift of the gods, so essential to a great public man. It carried him through endless strife, to the peak of universal commendation and criticism, and even now in the moment of his political eclipse, it is the same rare vitality that encourages so many of his friends and others to look upon his re; tirement in his 60th year from the first position in Empire politics, as merely a temporary effacement. The lustre of the brightest star in the British political firmament has not yet been for ever dimmed.

Though as Welsh as O’Connell was Irish, or as Pitt was English, David Lloyd George was not born in Wales. He is a man of Manchester by birth; hence some of the fervor of his welcome there the other day. There was a blast of trumpets before the fall of the ancient walls of Jericho. Son of a restless Pembroke dominie, with all the love of his pious forefathers for the soil of wild Wales, Mr. Lloyd George was 'born in Manchester on January 17, 1863, and proudly described by his father as “a sturdy, healthy little fellow,” a description that still fits him as a man among men. Left fatherless a few years later, this young David, who was destined to s'lay many Goliaths, was shepherded and educate! by an uncle, a frugal cobbler, who spent £BOO upon the training of the ]ad. It is not a trivial incident; it is really one of the most beautiful influences of simple, dutiful life that is too rapidly passing away before the flood of modern materialism. The widow’s home was a centre of many sacrifices and Lloyd George recalls with proud affection that it was a triumph for his mother when the luxury of half an egg for breakfast cou'ld be provided on‘“a Sunday. The privation of childhood had its disciplinary effect in the future days of great power and plenty. The secret of Lloyd George s vitality is the simplicity of his home life.

It is not necessary to dwell upon the boyhood of the man, though one feature of it revealed his early passion for revolt. Ultimately a breaker of strikes the Prime Minister of Britain once organised a strike at school. It took the form of silence and was a complete success. Even then Lloyd George could lead, and he still looks upon his speech in support of organised silence against questions at school as one of hie best oratorical efforts.

“THE WELSH ATTORNEY.” Lloyd George first entered the House of Commons in 1890, and has continuously represented Carnarvon ever since. He had chosen the law as his profession, and found it a stepping-stone to polities. He was up to the neck in strife from the first, and was known rather contemptuously as the “little Welsh attorney,” due largely to the fact that when in political passion he slipped easily into the language of the Celt. Now he is the most graceful of all public speakers of the King’s English, pure and undefi'led, but often enriched with the imagery of the Cymric imagination. Pass the strenuous days of his Parliamentary strife, and the flare of political revolt against the Boer War ae a tale that’s told! His real service, his full achievement are the. fresh memories of this generation, and the features of current history.

Mr. Lloyd George’s first Cabinet appointment came with the return of the Liberals to power in 1905, when he was appointed to the presidency of the Board of Trade. His work was so notably efficient that three years later, on the death of Sir Henry Campbell-Ban-nerman, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. In that onerous position he worked 16 hours a day, and toiled, as Jacob served for Laban’s daughter, for seven years in charge of the Treasury. THE WAR AND AFTER.

Though the strife that had always | been his portion in the politics of his country since his fiery entry to the House of Commons at 27 years of age, might well have sapped the strength of many men, it was apparently the right training for Mr. Lloyd Georgy. With the advent of the world war the fearless debater, the destructive critic, and the impassioned orator from Llanystumdwy became the foremost political strategist in the Empire, the administrator for a mighty task, the man destiny. His training ns Chancellor n: the Exchequer enabled him to take prompt measures to buttress British credit against a chaotic collapse. Then early in 1915 the scandal of inadequate munitions called for a man of courage, vitality, and firm persuasiveness. Within a year the ideal Minister for Munitions had done the pioneering work so well that security of supply was assured. A year latter this amazing worker for Empire succeeded Lord Kitchener as Secretary of State for War. While others fumbled, hesitated, or foozled great needs and demands, “L.G.,” to give him the abbreviated name by which he is best known to his intimates and the people of Britain, organised, acted, and established. Even then he was humbugged by futilities, and at the end of 1916 sent in his resignation. The result was the beginning of a remarkable period of amazing service. Mr. Asquith resigned, and Mr. Lloyd George became Prime Minister at the darkest hour of the Empire’s fortunes. He at least proved to be the man for the mighty task. His vitality became the Empire’s inspiration. Victory was achieved. When hostilities ceased the statesman who had held the gate was confirmed in power by the most overwhelming vote of confidence in British history. THE PEACE CONFERENCE. At the assembly of the representatives of 27 nations for the Congress of Paris in 1919, Mr. Lloyd George was one of its dominating figures. It was there that all the power and influence of his magnetism and manner were exercised at their best His gift of persuasion, won time and again when and where argument -would have lamentably failed. His genius as a tactician and conciliator had full play, and was very necessary on many occasions. * Consider tie? picture: Clemenceau, grey, grim, and stubborn in his service for his stricken* France: Wilson, lofty and vain-glorious on a Mount of Beatitudes; Orlando, huffv and hysterical; and Lloyd George bright, nimble) eloquent, and bantering*

ly persuasive. Sometimes Clemenceau, half-angrily and half-admiringly, would hhake the little man reprovingly and tell him that he had been “a very bad boy to-day.” That was always a day when British diplomacy scored. Since the Paris Conference the triumphs of Lloyd George have never been entirely completed. There has always been just a something more requiring to be done, and ever the steady growth of discontent in the British Parliament. It has been an unbroken succession of conference and crisis since 1919; sometimes at Home, more often abroad, until the Titan has become weary of intrigue, party machinations, and a fair measure of humbug. But a man with the vitality and per--1 sonality of Lloyd George will not easily ibe kept in obscurity. And he is a bon- | nie fighter against odds, with a light J banter that is deadlier in effect than , a blow, a flashing sentence that cuts more keenly than a sword. There will be wigs on the green before the end of another crisis. Tf the Coalition he broken there is still much vitality in its great leader.