Age and Youth.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16933, 7 September 1920, Page 6

Age and Youth.

"The Times," we are told to-day, 'has made the duty of saying kind things about Sir Thomas Mackenzie the occasion for a pica for the appointment of younger men to important Imperial offices. It depbres "the increasing '" tendency to appoint to Dominion posi- " tions in London and Governorships in " the Dominions elderly men whose " public life is apnroa'-hing an end," and it finds in the difficulty and delicacy of intra-TmpcTial relations a call for "young and activo personalities" t> direct tCio machinery of Empire. It is not surprising that "The Times" should take this line, for Lord Northclifro has .always been a believer in youth, and has certainly some remarkable results to fJhow in defence of his belief. He does not believe that a man is "too old at " forty," but ho docs believe t'hat after a certain age the average man's mind loses some of its flexibility -without gaining in capacity. In ordinary affa.irs, where experience of practically fixed conditions and changeless or slowlychanging principles of action is a cumulative asset, youth is normally at a disadvantage. Judgment usually comes with ago. But the case may well be otherwise in the sphere of politics, and particularly of that Ihigher form of politics which is concerned with the custody of our Empire's development. The Imperial system is, as "The- Times" says, "a thing of vague, undefined ties " and ambiguous constitutional rela- " tions and commercial interests which "are often in conflict." For the right handling of the problems arising out of tho interplay of such ties and relations and interests long political experience i& less necessary than imaginative vision. Veteran service in public life under tho "Downing street Empire" is apt to render a man unready to accept newideas quickly, or to apprehend clearly new developments of opinion. It is only the exceptional man ivhc in modern politics can keep pace with tho movement or events without slipping or losing his head, and it is a commonplace of criticism now that the work "done at Versailles, and continued at San Eemn and Spa and Hythc and other pleasant places, might have been done better if tho average age of the men doing the work had bsen rather less than it was. It would be'absurd to suggest that anything like a rigid rule sfhould be laid down, and we do not suppose that "The Times" does suggest this. But there is much to be said for the suggestion that it does appear to make, namely, that the good government and' sound development of the Empire ought to he treated witfli the utmost seriousness, and that long political, service ought not to he treated as the highest of qualifications for an Imperial office. Long,political service may be accompanied in any particular case by such a grasp of Imperial needs as makes the* man concerned specially well fitted for such an office. Sir James Allen is a case in point. But exceptional cases do not affect the general soundness of the view of "The Times."