PROMINENT MEN

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 182, 1 May 1931, Page 7

PROMINENT MEN

, Personalities in Britain JUDGE’S IMPRESSIONS A series of thumbnail sketches was given by Mr. Justice MacGregor in an address to the New Zealand Club yesterday on people he had met during his visit to the Old Country last year. The function was largely attended by members of the legal profession. Mr. Justice Reed was among those present, and Mr. A. Fair. K.C., was in the ehair. Although he did not meet the King. Mr. Justice MacGregor said that he saw him several times. Just as he arrived in London there w T ere alarming reports about his Majesty’s health, but Sir Thomas Wilford assured him they were unfounded, as only a few days previously he himself had had a twenty-five minutes’ interview with the King, who was in excellent spirits, and told him things about New Zealand which Sir Thomas himself did not know. He saw his Majesty at Whitehair on Armistice Day, a "most impressive occasion. He met the Prince of Wales at a reception at the Imperial Institute, where his Koya! Highness shook hands with over a thousand people, and looked very tired and weary.

Sir William Waterlaw. then Lord Mayor of London, was a typical specimen of the commercial class. His firm had recently been in serious trouble with a protracted lawsuit with the Bank of Portugal over the printing of some banknotes, which the firm was led into by a scoundrel. The firm had to pay the piper, but the case gave other countries a new outlook on British justice and what was meant by it. Mr. Justice MacGregor met the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, and in the House of Commons recognised Mr. Lloyd George by his fringe of silver curl, and Mr. J; Maxton. one of the wild men of the Clyde, an extreme Socialist with a strong way of expressing his views. Mr. Arthur Henderson was a man of shrewd views and shrewd tuition, but did not impress him as being of outstanding ability then. Some months later he received a copy of the report of a society dealing largely with foreign affairs, in which he read a speech of Mr. Hender-r son’s. It was a magnificent speech, a masterly summary of foreign'affairs at the time, couched in beautiful language and splendidly .put in every way. He thought that he had misjudged the man until he spoke to an official of the department. who said: “Yes. he delivered it. but he didn’t write a word of it. He couldn’t have written a speech like that to save his life.” That was the way in which occasionally political reputations were made and unmade. added his Honour.

Among other prominent men Mr. Justice MacGregor mentioned was Lord McMillan. the latest appointee to the Privy Council, and a member of the Scottish Bar but not the English Bar. His large practice had forced him to go to London. In 1924 Mr. Ramsay MacDonald bad difficulty in finding men to take posts in the first Labour Government including the Scottish Law Office. McMillan offered to take the position, but told the Prime Minister: “I won’t have anything t-> do with your infernal polities.” Mr. Justice MacGregor also met the late Sir Edward Clark. Lord Russell of Killowen, “an excellent judge and a very fair golfer." and the sou of Sir Oliver Lodge, who was inventor and manufacturer of the widely-used sparking plug of that name.

In conclusion, his Honour expressed appreciation of the great kindness and hospitality extended' to him everywhere. A very high opinion was held in London of New Zealand, and it was their duty to justify and do everything possible to deserve it.