"THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE FROM WITHIN."

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14304, 15 March 1912, Page 8

"THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE FROM WITHIN."

SIR JOHN FIXDLAY'S NEW BOOK

PEN PORTRAITS OF IMPERIAL STATESMEN. | When it was known that tho Hon. Sir J. O. Fintllay, lato Attornoy(icnoral for Xew Zealand, who was one of the representatives of New Zoalimii at tho Imperial Conference in i'Jll, had written a book, embodying tho re•mlts of hi.s observations and experi- j ences, under the title quoted at tho j head of this article, its appearance, was j naturally awaited with some interest. We have hr.d tho pleasure of perusing an advance copy of tho work, and ( may ray at onr<« that it is an import- ! ant and interesting contribution to tho j rapidly-growing mass of liternlare deal- j in;: with tho futiiro relations ot the j ronstituent portions of the British Em- j pin , . Those who wvrc simple enough to imagine that Sir John Findlny might inadvertently disclose matters which were supposed to bo kepb confidential, will, of course, he disappointed. In his preface tho writer modestly says:— "Tho title this book bears is not in- J tended io imply that its pages contain ! any information which has not been I already published, but merely to Rive ■ point to the fact that the writer had J tho great advantage of being present as a. representative of New Zealand j throughout tho sittings and discus- j sions of the Conference." We need ! hardly say how great this advantage j j?, in that it has enabled the author to j ■clothe the dry hones of the official pro- ! .codings with the living flesh of personal interest and vividness of descrip- j tion. Ho has first of all given us short pen pictures of the leading members of tho Conference, and enabled us j to see exactly what manner of men they are. Ho has then brought tho , criticism of an acute and rigor- j ous intellect to bear upon tho methods of tho Conference, and tho ■work it did- Finally, ho has dealt, in j the fourth chapter, with the subject j of Imperial Unity, and tho discussion on Sir Joseph "Ward's motion in favour of a representative Council of tho Empire. Moro than half of the book is devoted to an exhaustive consideration of this question, which is too important to be dealt with in tho present preliminary review. Wo will only say that tho impression which we think will bo left on the mind of an unbiased reader on perusing this chapter will bo that, it is a pity that the proposal was not brought forward by Sir John Findlay instead of by Sir Joseph Ward. If that had been done, it is.very likely that it would still have been rejected, but New Zealand, we feel suro, would havo been spared the humiliation of tho fiasco which followed from such a farreaching and revolutionary proposition having been brought forward by a representative who had evidently only imperfectly grasped tho principles involved, and proved himself quito unable to aneivcr the most obvious criticisms which wero brought forward on tho spur of the moment, merely in the shape of interjections. MR ASQUITH AS JOHN BULL. For the present, therefore, wo shall confine ourselves to that portion of tho book which deals with the men at tho Conference, and their methods of workThere were present thirteen oversea and two British. Ministers, ; and this inoluded, with Mr. Asquith, six Premiers. Tho British Press referred to the meeting as that of the Cabinet of Cabinets, a. figure of speech to which England's Prime Minister lent colour by commencing his opening address of welcome with tho -words, "Gentlemen and colleagues." "But," says Sir John Findlav, "if it could not be fully described as .a Cabinet of Cabinets, it was certainly a family gathering for business • purposes, John .Bull and Sons, discussing proposals for improving (tho co-operation and co-relation between'the branches and the chief establishment. Mr Asquith indeed, who was- in the chair as head of the House, as himself in face and figure, reminiscent of Punch's best representations of John Bull. Thick-set, strongly.built, heavy of feature, with a habitual look of determination —some people would call it dogged, and some stolid—he would bo a noticeable man in any -comoany." Like most colonial observers who visit tho Old Country, Sir John Findlay was very much siruck with the keen and logical intellect of England's Prime Minister. On this point ho says:— "In intellectual force and grasp —in brain power—ho has , 'few equals in England. . . . You see a logical athlete- achioving his fine feats with a surprising air of easo and confidence. ... There is no rhetorical embroidery. Tho stream of his ideas never loses itself in wordy sands, however glittering, but runs smoothly on between well-defined continuous banks in tho directest course to its destination. . . • Thero is an almost mechanical precision in his methods of developing an argument. Its parts seem to fall into their places with tho metallic regularity and certainty of tho operations of a linotype. Ho is ono of tho finest debaters in England— an intellectual forco without a .superior in tho Houso of Commons; but when all this is said it mnst nevertheless be admitted that ho has less personal magnetism about him than any of tho lending public men in Great Britain."' .Sir Asquith, according to Sir John .Findlay, cannot be called a popular figure. Ho seems never to divest him- i iself of a mantle of mental aloofn&ss. I ''Ho does not shako you by the hand; you rather shake his, whilo ho wears! :vn air of abstraction which leaves you j in doubt as to whether he is not going through tho courtesy unconsciously." It is not aii intentional austerity. It j is constitutional. It is not a pose, but it fact. Sentiment plays a very minor part in Mr Asquith's outlook upon public life. Ho is not stirred by laruo emotions liko Mr Lloyd Georgo. Cool, careful, sagacious, and alert, he is a pilot who steers only by tho authorised chart, and in charted seas. Summing up his character. Sir John Findlay says: "It is with him not fear, but a constitutional dislike to new departures from tho tried and beater, way of the past. A strong, safe, able man— ono of the ablest in England—but never likely to be stirred by any largo new gospel of human progress or by Gladstone's lofty aspirations for a truer social justice." SIR EDWARD GREY AND HIS i FAMOUS SPEECH. j Our author ventures tho opinion that the British Cabinet to-day contains a larger number of men of first-rate ability than it has done at any time in English history. The two who impressed him most were Sir Edward Grey and Mr Lloyd George. Referring to the famous address delivered in secret conclave by the Foreign Minister, the New Zealand observer writes:— " No man who heard him in that ■ Conference will ever forget Sir Edward Grey's address to us on tho history arid present nature of the foreign policy' of Great Britain (delivered to us sitting as a Secret Committee of Defence). .. . It was not what wo were told—im-

pressive and profoundly interest- ] mg though it was—that engraved j itself most vividly and" permanent- j lv on our minds and memories; it ; was the man, his manner, and his profound sincerity. No face in public life to-day combines spirituality with the features of power and grace so.perfectly as his. It is reminiscent of the best Greek sculpture. Finely chiselled, .statuesque in its calm, and yet animated by r.n expression in lips and eyes of radiant sincerity. . . . For over an hour he told the story ot our foreign relationship with a masterly Krasp of his subject—with a dignified and simple eloquence made the more impressive by his clear, wellmodulated voire—and with a franknos.s and unrevrve that appealed to the heart as well as to the understanding. That sj>eech—with its power, sincerity, and truthfulness—did more to stir and leave :i tense of Imperial unity in our blood than all tbo rest that happened or was said throughout the Conference. But the man impressed us more than h'm words, and the figure, tho features, and the voico that, expressed it will remain a more vivid memory than even tho itself." MR LLOYD-GEORGE. Mr Lloyd George did not take a prominent part in the Conference, but Sir John Findlay saw and heard a good deal of him outside, and considers him probably th<. most interesting figure in the public life of England to-day:— '"It i.s not his humble origin and meteoric rise that make him such a fascinating figure, although the picture of the old uncle, local preacher, and bootmaker, coaching the fatherless Welsh lad in the elements of Latin, as a preparation for the law. lives in tho mind of the British people. "What the British people love, above all elso in man h the fighter, is the quality of moral courage, and ho is a man who knows no fear. Whether it wan leading a revolt at school, an attack upon tho cemetery gates that excluded tho body of an old dissenter—that grim hour at Birmingham during the Boer War, when his lifo was in tho gravest peril from the frenzied mob—whether it was in these hours of daring, or in many another situation demanding intrepidity in his public career, ho has always shown himself ono of the dauntless souls. . . . He is ono of tho men to whom, I believe, politics is essentially a gospel and not a game % He is a man with a mission. With him it is ' tho Cause'—the cause first and tho guerdon of popularity and glory afterwards, if it comes through the promotion of tho cause. He is the disciplo of no political school of thought. Ho is not cribbed, cabined, confined, or bound in by saucy doubts and fears springing from economic formulae and doctrinaire principles. . , . ne counts for more in tho future of British politics than any other man—not mainly from his intellectual or oratorical qualities —for he is not the equal of Mr Asquith in intellectual grasp and power. He has not that splendid reserve of strength, that unfailing control of the right word, tho expressive phrase, that command of stately lucidity, which distinguish tho Prime Minister abovo other men; ho is not Mr Winston Churchill's equal as a Parliamentary speaker, nor has he Sir Edward Grey's lofty impressive personality. 'But ho has fixity and sincerity of purpose—he feels h'i3 politics as perhaps no other Minister save Sir Edward Grey does, and it is from his heart that ho gets that courage and enthusiasm with which ho tackles such desperate problems as that of his Insuranco Bill." Sir John Findlay is not bund to tho faults which proceed from Mr Lloyd George's too emotional and impulsive temperament, and he evidently looks forward with some misgiving as to what might happen should tho brilliant Welshman rise to eupromo power. '•Under Mr Asquith, who is tho embodiment of unemotional sober judgment and eagacity—ono 'wise to Know the limits of resistance and the bounds determining concession' —Mr Lloyd Georgo has been largely protected from tho defects of his qualities. but should tho day come when his hand must tako tho helm, that daring impetuosity, jinpressionableness and occasional unwise resistance —that mixture'of qualities or somo of them — may lead to the political maelstrom. But who can tell? Ho has in tho past risen to his responsibilities with splendid courage and self-mastery, and he may have the power, should tho need arise, of subduing his constitutional weaknesses to the necessities of the highest office." THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. Sir John Findlay speaks very highly of Mr Lewis Harcourt, the Colonial Secretary. Of him he says:— "While oue's first impression of him is that ho has moro suavity than depth or force of character, ono's last impression is that ho is a man of infinite penetration, tact, aud resource- Only towards the close of the- Conference did I detect with what an undisclosed but masterly adroitness ho had handled its members, and influenced tho conclusions of their deliberations. Ho moves towards his purpose- calmly, slowly, without tho least bit of anxiety, but rather with a hint of careless indifference, and thus achieves his purpose so quietly and unostentatiously that it seems rather to have- happened naturally than to have- been designed. It is said of him that he has tho 'grand mauner.' He certainly preserves unfailingly that attitude ot natural confidence and reposo which marks the best typo of Englishman. He i.«, I think, an incomparable judge of mcn —testing their metal and deciding their weight with tho ease and smoothness of a machine, whilo he himself remains as inscrutable behind his easy manners and refined suavity as the noumena bchiud phenomena." BOTHA AND LAURIER. Among the sketches of the overseas delegates, ono naturally turns with interest to see what Sir John Findlay has to say of General Botha and fair Wilfrid Laurier- Tho miracle of the Conference) wa3 to find such a man as Botha ndmiited to tho inmost secrets of tho defence of the Empire. -'The resolute, active, dauntless, elusive too of England: now he sits in this fcecret Council, listening to the arcana of the War Office- and the Admiralty." Sir John Findlay had many talks with him at tho Hotel Cecil, whore the oversea representatives all stayed, and remarks of him: — ''Flo impresses us at once as a strong, resolute man, with that simplicity of manner and modesty of nature we always like to find associated with greatness, without indeed true greatness is seldom found. Sophistry and verbal tricks with veracity are not found in his conversation. . - . He speaks English better than he imagines, and in dealing with many topics in the Conference his speeches.were always short, simple, and to tho point. . . . I should not think he was capable of negotiating a sharp political curve on any grade, but, while he would not compromise his principles, he knows the practical necessity of compromising party demands aud will content himself with a half-way : house- if he cannot get the whole way." Botha, Sir John thinks, wae the

most popular visitor to England. None on the day of the Royal procession, in which he "took part, evoked mj much enthusiasm, and ho took the acclamations ho everywhere received, with the quiet dignity of a strong man unspoilt by his success and unembittered by his defeat. Wβ have an interesting and telling picture of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the most picturesque figure at the Confer- j ence table. In 1892 Sir John mot j him in Ottawa, and afterwards in j London. The years have now com- j pletely whitened his hair, but it is still j plentiful, and its ample silver adds to i that look of refinement and intcllec- j tuality hi.s face has always borne. '"Be ! is stili the same verbai epicure. tlis ; iv choice English, picked phrase, and j ho seems to savour his words as ho | utters thorn. French is his language, i and he pronounces the longer words %.i j our tongue with a siight French ac- ; cent and a deliberate precision which J are agreeable. He has the 'grand j manner'—always courtly. He spoke 1 with a greator air of assured authority ] that any other man at the Confer- ! er.ee save, cf course, Mr Asquith. : ' j Both in Canada iteolf and :n the j tone and attitude of her j tatives in tho Conference, Sir John | Findlay recognised that Canadian j nationalism is oesinnfng to resent even j the annearance—the constitutional forms—of subordination' to the .Motherland. Canada is developing with enormous rapidity. Thero :s among her people a growing sense of rivalry with the United States, and this has not unnaturally roused aspirations for nationhood free from even tho termino- i logy of an ''imperium in imperio." j Here, for the present, we must close, t Wo cordially congratulate Sir John ] Findlay on having produced a book | which is full of'suggestive- thought on j Imperial problems, and w also interesting from the i:o:nt of view of tho j general reader, in that it gives a piquant sketch of men, methods, and ! matters at the heart of the Empire. ! The volume is published by Constable j and Co., Ltd., and is issued at tho price of 3s 6d.