CABINET REVELATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 272, 14 November 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

CABINET REVELATIONS.

A CRISIS AND AN INNER

HISTORY.

Political surprises have almost lost their power to astonish a bewildered public, so extraordinary and so rapid has been the course of events within the last few weeks. The latest developments in the situation have but added to the general bewilderment. Thursday's papers published the long-delayed letters in which Mr. Ritchie and Lord George Hamilton announced to the Prime Minister the resignation of their respective portfolios, and the circumstances revealed by the letters were sufficiently remarkable to call for explanation. The "Standard," which perhaps of all the papers had been in closest touch with the present Government, confessed itself completely puzzled.

"We are," declared that journal, "in the presence of an episode which, so far as we can recollect, has no parallel or precedent in our political history. It must be evident to the least experienced politician that the documents which have been made public do not 1 tell the whole story, nor is it to be gleaned from the facts which are as yet known to the world. There are missing passages in this remarkable chapter which our available information does not enable us to supply, but which we must presume will in due course be furnished by those who alone possess the necessary knowledge. Until that information is forthcoming we are in a distressing state of darkness."

It was not the letters themselves which suggested a mystery. They set forth, it is true, the motives which actu-

ated the respective writers in resigning from the Cabinet; but those motives were already familiar to the public, and the letters threw no fresh light upon the political situation. The interest lies in an accompanying letter -which Lord George sent to an Acton constituent, and in which the ex-Secretary of State for India asserts that his letter of resignation was written oia September 15, in ignorance of Mr. Chamberlain's resignation and of the consequent elimination of all that related to preferential tariffs from the Government programme. The letter went on to say: "The first intimation I received of the great change that had been < settled came to ane through a morning newspaper of the 18th. That newspaper also contained the gazette of the acceptance of my resignation."

This is the point of which a satisfactory explanation was not forthcoming. Mr. Chamberlain's letter of resignation, it will bo remembered, was written on September 9th, "in anticipation of the important Cabinet which is to meet on Monday" (five days later). The-Cabi-net meeting was held, and, according to Lord George Hamilton, the fact that Mr. Chamberlain's resignation was already in the Prime Minister's possession was kept a secret from at least one member of the Cabinet. What occurred in Cabinet the public have never learned, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for India both resigned on the following day. Their resignations, together with that of Mr. Chamberlain, were made public on the following Friday, and it was not till then, when he saw the news in the morning papers, that Loi-d Geoi-ge Hamilton learned that the Colonial Sec-retai-y had resigned some days before the Cabinet meeting which determined his own course of action.

The comments of some of the leading journals are interesting. The "Standard" suggests that there may have been good and sufficient reasons why the information regarding Mr. Chamberlain's resignation was withheld from Lord, George, "reasons of etiquette, or of a valid personal and constitutional nature."

The "Morning Post" was more outspoken in its leading .article of Thursday last. The circumstances of the affair were declared to be "sufficiently astonishing to raise some doubts as to how far the general conception of what constitutes a Government iii this country are well founded.": "We have had a peep behind the scenes," added the same journal, "and the impression it leaves is not a pleasant one. But it sometimes happens that fuller knowledge dispels the unpleasant first impression—and to-night we may have fuller knowledge vouchsafed to us." The "Times," on the other hand, expressed the opinion that Lord George's letter of resignation proved incontestably that his ignorance of Mr. Chamberlain's resignation had nothing to do with the matter. "His letter to Mr. Balfour," says the "Times," "shows that he is as much opposed to Mr. Balfour's policy as to that which Mr. Chamberlain left the Cabinet to advocate on his own account. . . ■ It is a mistake to pose as a man with a grievance unless a grievance can be thoroughly made out." i .