THE LIGHTER SIDE OF OFFICIAL LIFE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 124, 19 February 1938, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF OFFICIAL LIFE

Happy Reminiscences Of Sir Laurence Guillemard

“Trivial Fond Records,” by Sir Laurence Guillemard (London: Methuen).

Sir Laurence is one of those people who have led a full and interesting life, and he therefore lias a rich store of memories on which to draw. Added to this, he has in good measure the saving grace of humour, an asset to any author and a quality almost essential to one who would write a book of memoirs.

Sir Laurence spent most of his career in the Civil Service in England, rising to positions of great importance. He began in the Horae Office, then went to the Treasury, then was a private secretary in Downing Street for ten years, and finally became chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise, an appointment he held all through the war period. Finally he spent seven years as Governor of the Straits Settlements. His book, is a series of reminiscences, usually light-hearted, of official life at home and abroad. He has an easy Conversational style which results in a feeling of something like intimacy between reader and author, and which makes the book an ideal one for picking up and reading at odd spare moments. Naturally, in the course of a life such as he has led, Sir Laurence has known many famous people. He was for a time private secretary to Sir William Harcourt when the latter was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and others of whom he tells and into whose characters readers of this book will obtain interesting insight are Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Lord Salisbury, of whose absent-mindedness there are a number of excellent stories, Randolph Churchill, H. H. Asquith. Lord Rosebery, Lloyd George, Joseph Chamberlain, John Burns, Stanley Baldwin and Labouchere.

It was not long after Sir Lawrence's appointment as chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise that a difficult position arose when the House of Lords rejected Lloyd George’s Budget of 190910. The board was then faced with the situation that it must collect much of its revenue without any legal authority for doing so. Sir Laurence summoned a meeting of the heads of various trades and explained the position and a procedure was agreed upon. However, the problem still remained of the man who might refuse to be bound by any such “gentlemen's agreement,” and to meet, bis case Sir Laurence devised a pretty plan. The Adulteration Acts provided the necessary loophole and the first man who tried to lift large quantities of goods without paying the usual deposit found that, day after day, the Government analysts were said to be. testing samples of his merchandise' for possible adulteration. The dealer’s patience wore out before that of officialdom and the board obtained its deposit. The story of how German ships in British ports at the outbreak of the war were promptly seized is also told by Sir Laurence.

More than a vear before the war the Council of Imperial Defence had, on the advice of the far-seeing Maurice Hankey, set up a committee of which I was a memher. to prepare what camo to be called tlie War Book: in other wo»&, a detailed statement of the steps to be taken at the ports at the outbreak of war by tlie naval and military and police authorities and tlie Customs. Sealed copies were deposited by me with the head of eaeli local Custom house which were to be opened ou receipt of a specified code word. When at tlie end of July 1914 war appeared to be imminent and what is known as the precautionary period was declared, tlie code word was sent to all local Custom houses, and tlie sealed books were opened. Tlie instructions to our Customs officers were that as soon as war was declared they were nn receipt of a further code word to seize and tie up every German ship, and prevent its departure by the removal of some vital bit of machinery. At ten o’clock on the night of the third of August I was sitting with Maurice HanTrey in the private secretaries’ room in in'Downing Street, close by tlie Cabinet room.

In the central telegraph office sat my private secretary, holding a sheaf of telegraph forms.. one for each port, containing the code word, and awaiting a telephone call from me. Beside him sat one of the telegraph operators, specially detailed. .At eleven o'clock a Minister came out of the Cabinet room and announced that it was war. I went to the telephone, and in ten minutes all the telegrams had been sent off. My job done, Hankey and I walked through the Green Park to join the throng round Buckingham Palace. By seven o'clock next morning every German ship in the ports of the United Kingdom was safely tied up.

The final section of the book tells of Sir Laurence's term as Governor of the Straits Settlements. Of this period. too. lie has interesting anecdotes to tell, and also contrives to impart a good deal of information concerning Malaya. This book is not so trivial as its modest title would'have us believe. Certainly Sir Laurence does not go deeply into matters of high policy; nor does he set out to make “revelations,” a pastime which he rightly considers is overdone. But he has written a book thoroughly entertaining and often informative.