MINISTER OF WAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 149, 1 May 1942, Page 9

MINISTER OF WAR

-= Pon Portrait of Sir James Grigg=

Although Sir James Grigg was the other day elected to the House of Commons, his majority was not quite so overwhelming as might have been expected. This recent pen-portrait trom the " Observer" helps to explain why. A NY attempt at a portrait of "P.J." (the initials by which Sir James Grigg is known to his friends) must be sketched with bold strokes, because his is essentially a bold and highly individualistic character. One must be careful: the British have a prejudice against strong individualityuntil it proves itself in a crisis. "P.J.’s" strongest likes are for Rabelaisian wit, claret, dogs, Dickens, and fierce argu-

ment: his most violent hatreds are hyprocrisy, whining people, inefficiency, Lord Haw-Haw, and nearly all social functions. He is-or at least often isdevastatingly abrupt; he uses a ferocious candour like a surgeon’s knife, ruthlessly cutting away from his environment all that savours of boredom, hypocrisy, or self-seeking. Those who survive the operation find in him an always wise counsellor, a supremely loyal, exhilarating, and warm-hearted friend. There are dangers, as well as advantages, in the sudden emergency of such a personality into the full glare of the limelight. Legends are apt to gather. "P.J." is a man who, I suspect, will tend to shun or despise " Publicity"; he will be more concerned to get on with his job. It is immensely important that England should know him as he really is; he might too rapidly become the wrong Sort of myth. There is a tendency to expect miracles-conversely, a tendency to identify him with bureaucracy; and too much chatter, faute de mieux, about his "rudeness." He cannot overhaul an army over-night; he has acquired a certain discipline from the bureaucratic machine but never succumbed to its apathies; his bluntness is, as I have tried to indicate, of a surgical and healing, but never unjust or unkind, quality. Towards youth particularly he has a great warmth of understanding and sympathy which will presently, I have no doubt, appear in his actions. That faith is certainly held by those who know him. Grigg, like Cripps, possesses an acute, distinguished, disciplined

mind, and, what is perhaps much more important | now, a high and rare degree of passion and integrity. For all his bluntness he is a lovable and essentially modest man. If he and Cripps will go forward, not too modestly, together, sure of the faith of their fellowmen, we shal! find in them inspiration and leadership of a new and enduring quality.