TRIBUTES TO EXPREMIER.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17769, 22 May 1923, Page 9

TRIBUTES TO EXPREMIER.

THE MAN AND HIS WORK.

(Eeceived May 21st, 7.5 p.m.)

LONDON, May 21. The newspapers, regardless of party, pay tribute to the character and popularity of the retiring Premier. _ The "Daily Telegraph," after recalling Mr Bonar Law's Bagacity and simple, honest character, says: "The future of the Conservative Party is inseparably bound up with the succession to the Premiership. Some of the troubles of the present Cabinet are directly due to the lack of unity within the party ranks. Whoever is chosen as the new Premier should make it hi 3 prime duty to strengthen the Administration by the inclusion of distinguished Conservative leader still outside, otherwise we shall soon have a Labour-Socialist Government with its policy of rank spoliation." The "Daily Mail" says:—"Mr Bonar Law will remain among the great figures in our history. His greatness came by strength of character and nobility of disposition. The nation will praise him because he was a fearless, good man, who did his best for his country without thought of self. It will not forget his kindliness, simplicity, straightforwardness, and deep human sympathy, which he showed so often during the war, and which mado him so lovable."

The "Morning Post" says:—"King and country lose a Minister who can ill be spared, and one whom it will bo difficult to replace. Mr Bonar Law had the instinct of caution and, withal, a pawkiness of statement which made Ms strength in tho councils of the Sfate."

The "Post" considers Mr Stanley Baldwin the best successor to Mr Law.

The "Daily Chronicle" Bays: "Mr Bonar Law's illness and resignation create the greater sympathy because he has never aroused the least personal animosity. Ho is one of the best-loved men in Britain's political record. He owes his success to his moral worth. His Tecord iu public life assures him an honoured niche in Fame's temple." The ""Westminster Gazotte" regards his resignation as serious, "as a Government which has confidence in itself is much needed. Mr Bonar Law's retirement reveals the poverty of Conservatism." Labour's Appreciation. The "Daily Herald" (Labour) says: "We liave all learned to respect> the ex-Premier's sterling qualities of honesty, courage, and devotion to duty, which every man values in an opponent. For a time the tail will wag the dog. Then the nation will turn to Labour."

Mr d". Ramsay Macdbnald (Labour, Aberavon), Leader of the Opposition, said: "Mr Bonar Law's resignation comes as a very great shock and surprise. My first thought is one of sorrow for Mr Bonar Law's serious condition. In recent months I have come to regard him with real affection. The only thing I care about for the moment is the personal aspect of the situation."

REGRET IN PARIS. (Eecoived May 21st, 8.5 p.m.) PAEIS, May 21. The news of Mr Bonar Law's resignation is regretted in official circles. His honesty of purposß and his loyalty'to the Entente have never been questioned. Frenchmen have never forgotten that Mr Bonar Law, in August, 1914, thrilled Prance with his timely assurance of England's sympathy and help. MR BONAR LAW. OVERWORK CAUSES ILL* HEALTH. A brief summary of "Mr Bonar Law' 3 political career was printed in "The Press" yesterday. As will be seen from to-day's messages, his resignation has called forth many striking tributes to his sterling qualities. The First Illness. Mr Bonar Law's ill-health dates back a considerable period. His letter of March 17th, 1921, to Mr Lloyd George, announcing that he was quite worn out, and that his medical advisers had warned him that his physical condition was such that unless he had an immediate and long rest, an early and complete breakdown was inevitable, caused a, great shock in the House of Commons. Mr Lloyd George was much affected, and tears wero in his eyes as he read the letter. The Parliamentary correspondent of ''The Times" wrote that "the House was taken gricffully by surprise. The story of his breakdown can be soon told. From the day in the spring of 1915 when he took the office of Colonial Secretary in the first Coalition Government he has had hardly a day's rest. There can be no, question that Mr Bonar Law has overworked himself for years. For some months in 1916 and 1917, when he was Mr Lloyd George's chief lieutenant in the second Coalition Government, he was actually at the same time a member of the War Cabinet, sitting daily, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader of the House cf Commons. The war had taken two of his three sons from him, and he drowned a father's poignant sorrow in work, work without ceasing." An Appreciation. At that time, an old Parliamentary friend wrote the following appreciation: — jtfr Bonar Law has none of the attributes of genius. He has the outward and visible sign of his fellow man, the inward and invisible signs of real statesmanship, coupled with a high sense of duty to his country. When the skein of debate became entangled it was ho who unravelled the threads. He •was essentially a. House of Commons man but that is not all. In the Council C naniDer Ws place niay bo best sum-

f Continued at foot of next cokunn.)

med up in the words of a distinguished friend with whom he sometimes differed: "The annoying thing about Bonar is that he is usually right." Of necessity his best was negative in character. It was rather those things which he prevented being done than those which he did for which the country must be grateful. The least masterful of men, his master? of debate and of tho House of Commons sprang from his perfect hands and innate sympathy with the horse he rode, and, above all things, from his imorring judgment. Hiß War Services. To his services to his country during tho war history will no doubt give their true value. The famous doclaa'ation in which Mr Bonar Law and Lord Lansdowne, as joint loaders of tho Unionist Party, without consulting their colleagiies, pledged their party to any measures which Mr Asquith's Government decided to take in support of Franco and Belgium, will always remain a landmark in British, history. On the formation of the first Coalition, although he had not before occupied oneof the high offices of State, lie rose to the full height of his responsibility, and it is an. open secret that it was due largely to his unerring instinct and t% tho energy with which he pursued it that the abandonment of the tragic enterprise in Griillipoli was duo. On the fall of the first Coalition, he had the courage to refuse tho highest office in the State because he thought that Mr Lloyd George possessed in a higher degree than he that peculiar magnetic quality which is essential to a. democratic leader in a time of national crisis. On the formation of the second 1 Coalition the burden which was placed on his shoulders was almost superhuman, and for the two last and most critical years of the war he bore it uncomplainingly and untiringly. His first duty on becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer was the raising of the Victory Loan of over £1,000,000,000. It was during this time that he suffered tho loss in action of Iris eldest eon, whose younger brother had fallen at Gaaa. twelve months before. His Capacity for Work.

It was no unusual occurrence for Mn Bonar Law to be working in the early hours of the morning in his room long after the House had risen. Perhaps an idea of the strain of his work can best bo given by relating that after a particularly long and arduous day in Parliament, followed next morning by a spell of official work in Downing Street, he motored to Hen don, flew to Paris by aeroplane, and attended the same afternoon an inter-Allied conference by no means as a spectator, and next tlnv flew kick in time to take his place as Leader of the House of Commons. After the Armistice came the Peace Conference jn Paris, on which he e?rved as one of the British plenipotentiaries, while at home he led tho House through two of the most strenuous sessions in. the history of Parliament.