HOME SUFFERED MUCH CRITICISM

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 15

HOME SUFFERED MUCH CRITICISM

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright >

LONDON, July 23. Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the outgoing leader of the Conservative Party, was pitchforked into the political spotlight when he became Foreign Secretary five years ago.

Controversy surrounded his appointment and controversy has since never left him for long. The choice by the then Prime Minister, Mr Harold Macmillan, of the fourteenth Earl of Home, Baron Home and Baron Dunglass of Scotland, and Baron Douglas of the United Kingdom, as Foreign Minister aroused an immediate storm. By tradition, the Foreign Secretary, like the Prime Minister, had been a House of Commons man. answerable to to the Lower House. Some critics questioned Lord Home's personal suitability for the job. One newspaper called him “this unknown and faceless earl.” But Mr Macmillan stuck to his decision. Before long Lord Home was making his mark with blunt speeches elaborating his view that the West must not leave propaganda to the Communist powers. Aroused Criticism He aroused criticism at home and abroad for his strictures on aspects of the United Nations. The then Lord Home’s appointment as Prime Minister in 1963 was the biggest British political shock since World War 11. No Premier had been chosen from the House of Lords since the turn of the century, and few people thought Lord Home would be willing to relinquish his ancient peerages. Obvious contenders for the post were the Deputy-Prime Minister. Mr R. A. Butler, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Reginald Mauldling, and Lord Hailsham, another Cabinet Minister in the House of Lords Two Refused Lord Home had few public supporters. But apparently Mr Macmillan believed he would be acceptable to the rival groups, restoring party unity after the tough in-fighting for the succession in a way that no other candidate could. Lord Home accepted the Queen's invitation to form a Government and promptly two of his leading colleagues in the Macmillan Government —lain Macleod and Mr Enoch

Powell—refused to serve un der him. The new Premier took immediate steps to divest himself of his titles and fight a parliamentary by-election so he could take his place in the House of Commons as Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Renewed Criticism When the Labour Party won the General Election, although only by a small majority, last autumn, there was renewed criticism of Sir Alec Douglas-Home in the inquest that followed. Some observers attributed Labour’s triumph partly to Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s lack of

personal appeal among Britain’s voters. He has been fighting a rearguard action to retain the leadership. Sir Alec Douglas-Home was horn on July 2, 1903, a member of one of Scotland’s oldest families, with records going back to the grant of lands and a castle by the Scottish king. William the Lion, before 1214. He was educated at Eton College—like Mr Macmillan — and Christ Church, Orford University.

He was married in 1936 to the daughter of an Anglican Church den and former Eton headmaster, and has a son and three daughters.