In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 143, 20 June 1925, Page 24

In the Public Eye

NOTABLE PERSONALITIES IN THE NEWS

Baron Byng, Governor-General of Canada, since 1921, has notified his inability to remain in that position after the expiration of his term of office. Lord Byng, when he was General Julian Byng, commanded the Canadians at Vimy Ridge during the Great War, but he is perhaps better known as the man who led an English army when the Germans attacked Cambrai and forced the famous "Byng Boys" to retire. The German occupation of the town, however, was of short duration; for the troops under the personal command of General Byng attacked llio Gorman hordes who lihJ disorganised theBritish line. ..They ■ were driven back by cooks, batmen, and members of the labour corps, the" laller armed with .spades and picks. The German attack! was a. complete surprise, and it is said that staff officers behind tho lino were, c-o surprised at tho quick advance of the Huns that they v.ore. unable to change from their, pyjamas to, their uniforms. Thus attired (hoy joined the. labourer?, and. assisting to reorganise the "army," helped to bring: about, a victory which mado General .Byng famous, and -for which he was raised to." tho rank of full general., General Byng, who is 57 years of age, previously served in the Sudan and South Africa, and commanded foreea in Egypt until-the.outbreak of the Great War gave him tho new post of commander of the Canadian Corps after commanding the Cavalry Corps. General Byng- was knighted in 1915, and was made a G.C.B. in 1919. Ho was raised to tho peerage and received a grant of £30,000 in 1.919. He. retired from the

.Army in 1919, after, having received many foreign orders, and lived privately and very, quietly uiitil he accepted the Governor-Generalship of Canada.

. The Bight Hon. Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amcry, wlio was mentioned last Saturday as the Secretary of State lor tho -Dominions in the reconstructed Colonial Office, is 52 years of ago. Ho started out. in lite asa lawyer, and was called to.tho Bar in 1902, but has never practised. For somo' years he was engaged 'in journalism. During tho Great Wai- he served in Flanders, Salonika, and ■tho Balkans. He was on the, personal staff of the Secretary for War, 1917-13, and was a temporary lieutenant-colonel: on tho General Staff. Ho was also on the staff of tho Imperial War Council at Versailles and was Assistant Secretary to tho War Cabinet and Imperial War Cabinet,. 1917-18. He acted as Undersecretary for the Colonies, 1919-21; Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty. 1921-22; and First Lord of the Admiralty, . 1922-24. ' When the Labour Government went" out of office he accepted a, seat in Mr. Baldwin's new Cabinet, as Colonial Secretary. In Parliament he represents the "Sparkbrook Division of Birmingham, having first won the seat in 1918. He is married to a sister of Sir Hamar Greenwood, at one timo Chief Secretary for Ireland, and who refused a seat in the present Cabinet. Mr. Amery'isan exhibitioner of Balliol, and was elected a'fellow of' All Souls; Oxford, in 1897.

In one particular only is Mr. Ronald .!?. M'Neill, the Under-Secretary. of Foreign Affairs in the present British Govcrniiicnb like unto the Fabian. Fame came to him wl\en, some years ago, he hurled a book at Mr.-Winston Churchill in the House of Commons. That stood him in far better stead than all his bitter speeches about Ulster, and than all his more recent pronouncements on foreign affairs. .The-book which hit Mr. Churchill, but did not hurt him, served Mr. M'Keill as a stepping-stone to promotion. Life in Parliament lias queer and devious ways of making its adjustments. Since the two brothers Wason went (thoso two Scottish giants), he has been tho tallest man in the House. He is a great, broad-shouldered, heavily-built man'with features moulded on-the generous lines suitable to his size, and ho lias a complexion whose ruddiness may well challenge that._ of Mr. Asquith. In 1911 Mr. M'Neill entered Parliament, as the representative of the St. Augustine's Division of Kent, at a time when the ago-long battles of Ireland had'reached their period of fiercest intensity. Sir Edward Carson and F. E. Smith were launching bitter offensives, and when they failed from sheer exhaustion, Ronald iM'.N'eill. would lumber into the breach with invective and irony, and the lash of-his tongue would descend upon the furious Irish Nationalists and on tho equally angry Asquithians. Sir Edward Carson became a Lord and "F.E." was similarly honoured, but Ronald M'Xcill still kept the flag flying in the last ditch, of which he was now the only really notable occupant.. Then came the Treaty, the Free State, and the Dail Eirann, and ho had to build himselE a new political world, and with it a new Ronald M'.Ncill. Men wondered how this roughtongued Ulsterman would acquit himselE in office, but they have been immensely surprised. The new Ronald M'Neill picks his way carefully and skilfully along tho devious and difficult paths of political diplomacy, for which his early training as a barrister lias stood him in good stead. ■.

Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, who iiiis ] boon appointed to succeed Sir Herbert I Samuel as High Commissioner and Com-mander-in-Chief in Palestine, lias had a great career.- He did distinguished service in the South African War, in Rhodesia, and in several separate commands. He commanded the troops destined to meet a German invasion at 'the beginning | of the war, hail such an adventure, been attempted. Then ho succeeded to the command of the Second Army, which guarded the Ypres salient, the left of the British line. His troops successfully held their-ground in the second battle of YpreSj in. spite of the enemy's poison gas. In the summer-of 1937 Plumer captured the famous jHessiues Ridge. His army was unable to penetrate in the I'aschomlaelc offensive, though it fought with immortal valour; but the conditions precluded all hupo of success. From November, 1917, to TMaruh. 1918. bo commanded the Kalian Kxpedi'tiuiiLiry Force; and. returning; to the. Western Kront in the latter year, he led the Second Army in France, and in the spring of 1918 had to 'bear the. brunt of the second great Oei-imm thrust, winch gained some ■ground, but which never captured Ypres nor bruke the solid continuity of thu i'.iiiish line covering the vital ports— j .Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne. In the same year he led Hit successful offensive whiiji* eventually cleared the coast and reduced the extreme vigla wing of the German host before the Armistice. After the Armistieo General French was given command of the Tiritish Army of the TUiino, and in 1919 was appointed Governor and Coniniaiidci'-in-Cluef of Malta, which post he held until last. year, Lord T'lumcv, who is 68. years of age,, i" 1884 married Annie Constance. 0.1'.f... youngest daughter of ihe late Mr. Geoi-w Gloss.'. Tho family consists of one son and three da ugh I ere Lord l-'lunicr'has a.lwa.;rs been one of Ihr. jnosf. popular jsii*mlr \a t"Vie 'Gi'ilisli Ai-my. ljutii vifch