EARL BALFOUR

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 20 October 1928, Page 21

EARL BALFOUR

A STATESMAN'S SPEECHES "Opinions and Argument from Speeches and Addresses of the Earl of Balfour, K.G., 0.M., F.R.S., 1910-1927." Hodder and Stoughton, London. ' The selection of Lord Balfour's speeches published in this column was made by his niece, Mrs. Edgar Dugdale. The Earl himself (so it would appe.ar from his prefatory note) was responsible for the- raw material of tho volume, but for nothing else. He expresses no opinion upon the selection except that Mrs. Dugdale is probably a. far safer guide than ho would be, with the remark: "I do not propose cither to read the selection itself, or to review the speeches which might have been in it, but aro not." ■ On one point only I would ask the reader's indulgence (he adds). My memory on all matters, but especially my verbal memory, is hopelessly defective. For good, therefore, or for evil, the wording of my speeches is of necessity unprepared. Pew indeed are those who, in such conditions, can speak as they would write; and certainly I am not one of them. If it be asked whether the defect in extempore speech could not be cured by subsequent corrections, I reply that it certainly could; but that it would be far more trouble to make the corrections than to make the speech. . This delightfully cynical preface prepares tho reader for the many good tilings the volume contains. Covering as it does only seventeen years out of tho half-century or more of Lord Balfour's public service it is necessarily not comprehensive These speeches were made after the statesman, already a veteran, considered that his time for retirement had came. The volume opens, indeed, with his announcement of his resignation of the leadership. of the Unionist Party, though there are four speeches of earlier date. Yet after that resignation we see the statesman again in office and taking a full share of public work. The speeches cover a wide range of subjects: Imperial Affairs, Zionism, International Affairs, the Modern State, a Political Miscellany, and finally golf. In them all one discerns the mind of the clear thinker. Even on such a subject as "Nationality and Home, Rule" (delivered in October, 1913), one cannot but be impressed with the logic of the arguments, though it may be held that events have since shown the opinions to bo erroneous. It is clear that, though the wording of the speeches is unprepared, there has been thorough preparation of the opinions. Many of the speeches have, however, much more than this literary interest. There are, for example, two on tho League of Nations which could be read with advantago by many of the friends and enemies of the League. The famous "Balfour Note" is included, with the speech in which the author of the Note subsequently supplemented it. In both the dignity of diplomatic language rises to a high level, and yet loses none of its force. Tor example, in the following paragraph: ' They (the Allied and Associated Powers) were partners in the greatest international effort ever made in the cause of freedom, and they are still partners in dealing with some at least of its' results. Their debts were incurred, their loans were made, not for the separate advantago of particular States, but for a groater purpose common to them all, and that purpose has been,in the main accomplished. To generous minds it can never bo agreeable, although for reasons of State it may be necessary, to regard the monetary aspect of this great event as a thing apart, to be torn from its historical setting and treated as no more than an ordinary commercial dealing between traders who borrow and capitalists who lend. One might make innumerable extracts, for there is much in tho volumo that is worth quoting and worth remembering. It is a volume that should be studied by younger generations of politicians. It is in many respects a model of what speeches should be if they are to be an enduring contribution to political thought, and not merely a means of avoiding'thinking.—J.R.S.