Eden Has Qualities For Role As Leade

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27628, 7 April 1955, Page 9

Eden Has Qualities For Role As Leade

Sir Anthony Eden personifies to ] many the English “public school” type ’ of diplomat and politician—suave, 1 elegant and immaculately groomed. He is also the most experienced of : Britain’s post-war Foreign Secretaries < with nearly a quarter of a century of i service as a Minister. Tall and slim, with a military moustache, he has an engaging smile ( and still looks boyish in spite of his : grey hair. His appearance and sartorial taste have combined to establish him over the years as a political “Prince Charming.” But friends and opponents alike say this tends to obscure the qualities which brought him to the front. Sir Anthony Eden’s strength, they say, lies in his patience, clarity of thought and cool judgment, to which are allied integrity and courage. He showed physical bravery during World War I when as a young officer he rescued a wounded soldier from no man’s land-One of the great landmarks of his political career was an act of moral resignation from the Foreign Secretaryship in 1938 because he disagreed with the “appeasement” policy of Mr Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, towards Fascist Italy. This gesture, born of a conviction that Britain’s duty was to stand up to the dictators, confirmed his personal reputation with the British people and the world. Success of Last Year’s Diplomacy Unlike Sir Winston Churchill, he is no great orator, but he is skilled in Parliamentary technique. Sometimes accused by critics of lacking drive, his diplomatic moves during 1954 did much to belie the charge and have greatly increased his stature. It was partly due to his negotiating skill at the Geneva conference last year that an armistice was concluded in Indo-China. In the summer, the British-Egyptian agreement on the Suez Canal Zone settled a longstanding and bitter problem. A solution to Britain’s oil dispute with Persia was also reached. In the autumn, after France s rejection of the European Defence Community Treaty, he initiated a solution of the problem of bringing Germany into Western defence and changed the whole atmosphere of the London nine-Power conference by pledging Britain to leave four divisions and a tactical air force on the continent until the end of the century. Soon after, his services were rewarded by the Queen when she made him a Knight Companion of the Garter. , , Christened Robert Anthony Eden, he comes from a well-known landed and

political family. He was born Windleston Hall, near Bishop At land, County Durham, on June 1897, the younger son of Sir Will Eden, baronet, a somewhat eccen country squire, whose bad temper notorious. It is said that he inherited tendency to spleen and that it is efforts to keep a tight rein on h self that have made him a modest rather self-effacing man. ! He was educated at Eton Coll and after World War I. in which served in France, winning the Milit Cross and ending up a brigade ma he went to Oxford University, wh he was a brilliant scholar in Oriel | languages.

Rapid Rise in Parliament He entered Parliament in 1923 Conservative member for Warw and Leamington, which he still presents. His qualities soon attraC the attention of Mr Stanley Baldv then Prime Minister, and of Sir Aus Chamberlain, the Foreign Secret* ; who made him his private secretary in 1926. I His rise was rapid. In 1931, he 1 | Under-Secretary for Foreign Affi and in 1934 he was in charge of Lea; of Nations affairs with full Minister 1 rank.- He became a leading persona. , at Geneva. It was no surprise when in 1935, Anthony Eden became Brita; youngest Foreign Secretary for nea ; a century. He succeeded Sir Sam I Hoare, whose policy of comprorc with Mussolini over the Itali. Abyssinian conflict had aroused’ storm in Britain. His decision to resign rather th be a party to renewed comprom efforts over Abyssinia followed in IS He was out of office during ’ ( Chamberlain era of appeasement 11 Nazi Germany, but on tne outbreak! ; war he was brought back w the Conservative Government • I Dominions Secretary. it When Sir Winston Churchill tc over the leadership of the Ct , servative-Labour-Liberal Coaliti | formed after the early war-time c aster in Norway, he became Forei | Secretary. He returned to this post most automatically when the C< servatives won the 1951 election afj I six years in opposition. | Sir Anthony Eden has a love; ’ gracious living, good wine, furnitt» and pictures. Ji From his father he inherited s<| ' sibility and a taste for art He I ; collected works of impresaioil | painters and is himself a tarenl i , painter in water-colours. _ His first marriage was dissolved. 1 second marriage in August, 1952, y t to Miss Clarissa Churchill, a niece’ Sir Winston Churchill.