LATE MR CHAMBERLAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1940, Page 9

LATE MR CHAMBERLAIN

TRIBUTES TO HIS NATIONAL SERVICE PAID BY BRITISH PRESS. VITUPERATION IN GERMANY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 10. “The Times,” in a leading article, while predicting that a fuller disclosure of the truth will cause Mr Chamberlain’s stature to increase rather than diminish, suggests that his lack of an easy touch arising from shyness, coolness and reticence in his ordinary social contacts was a positive handicap, specially after he became Prime Minister. “The Times” adds: “He was more cut off than any Premier or party leader should be from the rank and file of his followers and from the fluctuations of public opinion. Quicker intuition of popular feeling would have saved him from some of the lapses in the presentation of a case which was always powerful and from much misrepresentation by his critics. None can deny the conviction, courage, self-reliance, and decision with which he pursued his duty as he saw it.

“We owe to him more than to any other man that the united people of the Empire mean to fight on regardless of costs and hazards for any period' necessary to bring Hitlerism to defeat. No leader left a finer pattern of high fortitude and devoted service to the State. We know that what he attempted no man could have achieved.” The Polish Premier, General Sikorski, telegraphed the following message to Mrs Chamberlain: “The loss of your husband is a great loss for Britain and the whole world. The foundations which he created will lead to victory.” The Swedish Press treats Mr Chamberlain's death sympathetically though it is disinclined to pass judgment. The ■ German newspapers use the occasion as an opportunity for a violent outburst of vituperation, adopting the phrases “war-monger,” “profiteer,” and “traitor.” The "Daily Telegraph,” in a leading article, leaves judgment of Mr Chamberlain’s record to posterity. It emphasises his feat in solidly uniting the nation behind him and persuading it to accept compulsory service, and suggests that his handicaps were personal as well as political. It declares that he never had the art of accommodation or compromise, and never acquired a politician’s temperament, arousing a special degree of personal antagonism among his opponents. It adds that for the first time for more than 60 years the name of Chamber-' lain vanishes from public life.

NEW ZEALAND SYMPATHY. A message was sent yesterday by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr Fraser, to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, expressing deep regret at the death of Mr Chamberlain and the Dominion’s appreciation of the late statesman’s efforts to prevent war.