CHAMBERLAIN TRIO

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20740, 25 February 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)

CHAMBERLAIN TRIO

FATHER AND SONS REAUSTS IN POLITICS TWO MISS TTTL PREMIERSHIP In recent months the name of the British Prime Minister has been on everybody's lips—Neville Chamberlin. A ceneral Inafhinc and detestation of war. conducted as it is to-day by wholesale massacre of civilian populations, found expression in praise of the statesman who had been the leader in averting the threat' of war. writes .T. B. Firth in the Christian Monitor. Whether or not a continuing: peace bepn brought nearer it. is still too early to say. But that Mr Chamberlain will sustain his efforts is sure, and for a reasonable settlement such as men of pond will everywhere desire, it would seem that Great Britain would readily make actual and not vicarious sacrifice. When Mr Chamberlain took the helm he changed the ship’s course. He did not part with Mr Anfhonv Eden on a. punctilio, hut on crave differences of method. In diplomacy it has been said le ton fait, la chanson. Mr Chamberlain abruptly changed the tone. Tt is always areuablp whether a certain course is right. or wrong on balance of the short view and thp lone. Not without some temporary loss of prestige for the Western Democracies was the catastrophe averted. But the. faults and mistakes which had produced the desperatp situation were committed lonp beforp. Having cut the loss Mr Chamberlain “sees what he foresaw.”

j The Chamberlains are realists. That j does not mean that they lack ideals. ! But they know that without realism I ideals remain In the clouds. In the Forefront | Britain had three closely related ! Chamberlains in the forefront of Brit- i ish politics durinp the last 50 years, j That Is a rare, if not unprecedented, i occurrence. For father and son to ’hold hich office is not uncommon, but. ; even so. the early advancement of the , • son is usually due to the paternal ini fluence. William Pitt, for example, 1 would never have been Prime Minister at 23 had he not been Chatham’s i son. Joseph Chamberlain. father of ! Austen and Neville, passed on nearly j a quarter of a century apo. He had < I every qualification for political leader- : ! ship—strong personal ambition, inI tense driving force clear vision, the i demagogic touch which sways the multitude, readiness in debate, and a power of invective which made him formidable in attack. .Toe—for he was always .Toe to English politicians—once said in private conversation that “the only position in public life worth having was the Premiership, because for a short ticn

!you comM do as you Tfked.” However, he was never Premier and thus | was never able to do all that he might {have done. If he had not broken with j Gladstone over Home Buie and split the Liberal Party, he might have had the reversion of the Liberal Premiership. When he became the ally of the Conservatives, the most he could do was to teach the British people to “think imperially” and to advance his fundamentals of educational, social and economic reform. “I hope to lay Arm and deep," he said, “the foundation's of that Imperial T T nion whic-h fills my heart when I look forward to the future of the world.” Tt was a grand and inspiring ideal but Lord Salisbury and many other Conservatives of the old school could never overcome their rooted distrust of the one-time idol of provincial radicalism and militant nonconformtiy. A Dynamic Figure Next to Gladstone. Joseph Chamberlain was for a generation the most dynamic figure in the British political scene. Nothing daunted him. He never rested. Tn office he was worth half a score of ordinary Cabinet Ministers ! and half a hundred rank and file. At | the Colonial Office, which till his comI !ng was a stagnant pool, they called j him “the master.” Tn opposition he was an adept with all the Parliament- | ary weapons which conduce to a clean “kill.” He had the genius. in equal measure, of making friends and ! enemies. John Morley wTOte of him : j “His fidelity tn a political ally is in- • comparable.” Vet T. P. O'Connor was | by no means the only man who. with • a vigour beyond party resentment or ! hnnpst rage, spoke with rancour (against Joseph -Chamberlain. j Where, then, could the two keen- | wilted hoys who railed him father , j have found a more bracing and stimu- j • lating upbringing than at Highbury, | with its oprhids and its books and its ! atmosphere of talk—hard, earnest., I controversial. inspiring talk. talk I which revolved round big causes and hard-fought political battles—smashing victories and dire defeats. It was a home tn produce practical and resolute men of affairs. The two sons more than fulfilled the confident hopes of the father, though the pattern of his plans was altered by the nature of events. I Austen, the elder, so tt was early {settled, was to he the statesman, serving his full term apprenticeship before entering Parliament and setting foot j on the ladder of official promotion. Neville the younger, was first to go into business and make money and then perhaps lake a hand in BtrmingI ham’s civic r.fT:>s. and later, possibly, I find a way to Westminster. But there was no thought that he should make j politics iiis can or. Top did not live | to S p e Neville enter Parliament, much less win the big prize his brother, for all his political successes, had missed. I cannot, believe that Joe would have withdrawn, as Austen did. his claim to the Unionist leadership on Balfour’s retirement. even though his rival. Walter Long did the same, and both made smooth the way for Bonar Law. The chance never came again. He was j admired and applauded for his self- | sacrifice, hut he had made the grand ' refusal. ] Driven into the Wilderness e Yet it was a keen disappointment that he—leader at last of the Unionist

Party—was driven into the wilderness with Mr Lloyd George, when the postwar Coalition Government fell and Bonar Law had cropped up again at the famous Carlton Club meeting with the then almost, unknown Mr Stanley Baldwin ns his Chief of Staff. Truly, the events turned against him. No onp was mnrp punctilious, no one more conscientious, no one more the model of honour and courtesy 1q all his ways than Austen Chamberlain. But. he lacked his father's incisiveness and fire. By assiduous practice, indeed he overcame a certain stickiness of speech which impeded the flow of his words, hut he rarely swept, an audience along with him to the conclusion which they in fact had often reached befor-p him. TTis influence in the House of Commons was highest when he had said farewell to office and was .just “The Elder Statesman.” ! enjoying an Indian summer of wellI earned ripeness and repose. ! Bonar Law once said that, tiere fire “no friendships near the top.” Austen Chamberlain was the standing corrective of that cynicism, for he had been a loyal second in command in turn to Balfour. Lloyd George, and Baldwin. Tie had his special hour of fame and glory when, as Foreign Ferretary. he and the representatives of France, Germany and Belgium negotiated the famous Pact which was to inaugurate a new era of security and peace in Western Europe. But there is a mournful sound today in Locarno’s fateful syllables with I which M. Aristide Briand. in one of his noblest flights of oratory made magical play as he descanted on the sure, return of the Fafurnian Age. These | things hnrdlv hear thinking of. Tt seems sinister to recall them in con--1 nection with Munich, yet how dare one ! quitp forget ? : Tt, is curious that all three Ohamberjlains should have had to do with attempts to reach agreements between Britain and Germany. Tt is not that they were “Germanophile.” in the accepted meaning of that word. When i.Toe sought an understanding and even alliance with Germany in the ’nineties, it was because British relations with France were strainer! and Germany was insistently offering her benevolent neutrality at a price. Nor is Neville Chambprlaln “Germanophile” I because hp seeks a basis upon which a .lasting peace can be secured. He is :no more Germanophile than he is | Italophile. Nor has he Fascist sympathies because he would come to a modus vivendi with the dictators. He is Just a realist- whose Ideal Is peace. Neville A Business Wan | Neville* Chamberlain was a businessman till he entered Parliament at 50 His experience of municipal administration helped him bring to a conclusion the vast building schemes which have rehoused a large proportion of the British working classes and to carry through an elaborate and intricate reform of the rating system. Despite an unaccountable “slip-up” in ihis last budget on his original plans : for making big business pay a special ! contribution to the cost of rearmament. he left the Exchequer with the reputation of being a master of sound ,finance. I Mr Baldwin "adopted” him as heir !to the Premiership very much as the { Roman Emperors associated their successors with them in the Principate. L

Nor was a word of criticism offered against an innovation which would have shocked the constitutionalists of an earlier generation. There was. in fact, no accepted alternative within sight, and thus a Chamberlain at last became Prime Minister.

Mr Neville Chamberlain leads an active life, walking before breakfast in the Park with his wife, fishing up north when he can snatch a day or two from work. He rises from his desk if he catches the chuckling note of the Downing Flreet blackbird which imitates the song of a thrush. Statesmen cannot help being jaidged ( by the event hut the event is still on the lap of the gods. There is a strong hand on the British helm. though there are plenty to call it xveak. There is a strong win behind the. course which he has set. There is an honest, man labouring for the. peace and welfare of Britain and the world.