LORD SALISBURY'S RETIREMENT FROM THE FOREIGN OFFICE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9986, 16 March 1898, Page 4

LORD SALISBURY'S RETIREMENT FROM THE FOREIGN OFFICE.

We publish a very important item of news among our English cable messages this morning. !Lord Salisbury's health has broken down under the strain of both the Premiership and the Foreign Office, and Mr. Bawoub takes 'charge o£ the latter. For some time past it has been felt that the tremendous task which Ijord Salisbury I had undertaken was too much for the powers of any one man, but there was a natural reluctance to see the Foreign Office paes into other hands while so manydimcult and delicate international problems remained to be settled. The matter has now been decided by the physical breakdown of Lord Salisbuby, and it has been found imperative for him to give up the charge of the Foreign

Office at the precise moment when the nation most needed his services in that -■ capacity. Mr Bawour is an able statesman, a man of prudence and \, foresight. Neither he nor any other w present member of the House, however, can pretend to the same intimate knowledge of foreign affairs, ov to the same experience and skill in the ways of diplomacy, as the Prime Minister possesses. It is, therefore, particularly unfortunate that the nation should lose Lord Salisbury's services as Foreign Minister at the very moment when thejeare most required.