LLOYD-GEORGE ON BALFOUR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9679, 31 December 1909, Page 4

LLOYD-GEORGE ON BALFOUR.

It has always been a matter of amusement to foreigners that British politicians in rival camps should be friends in private life. At the present time the two great antagonists are Mr Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and author of the Budget, and Mr Balfour, leader of the Opposition. They met on October 21st at a dinner of a Welsh society in London. The report in "The Times" being as follows: —Mr Lloyd George in proposing the health of Mr Balfour, said that the House of Commons had a special pride in Mr Balfour, a pride in his great gifts, a pride in his courage, a pride in his chivalrous bearing. (Cheers). There was no debate in the House of Commons in which he took part which he did not enrich by his contribution. He was one of the greatest assets of the House. Mr Balfour, who was received with loud cheers on rising to respond, oaid:—l do not think that I ever* rose under more embarassing circumstances to reply to a toast. The speech which you have just heard from the Chancellor of the Exchequer was concluded in terms so generous, and paints me and my Parliamentary performances in colours so flattering, that I confess that, hardened as I am to dealing in public with matters sometimes difficult and sometimes delicate, I raally hardly know how to reply; because the Chancellor of the Exchequer has not dealt with the subjects with which this great gathering has come together—he haj not dealt either with Welsh literature or Welsh history—but has confined the whole of the speech which he has made to not only a generous, but a far too generou« jiupreeiation of that sphere of activity in which we are both concerned. This is no the fii.-i time, however, that I have rec .gnised, and have been rejoiced to recognise, that political differences do nut, so far as Welshmen are concerned, embitter personal relations . . . . Ido not believe there is any country in the world where such a speech could havt 1 been made on such an occasion and such a njbject except this country, and, perhaps, by a Welshman. (Laughter and cheers).