SNOWDEN HOUSEHOLD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 102, 26 October 1929, Page 21

SNOWDEN HOUSEHOLD

AN INTERESTING- GLIMPSE

,Mr. Philip Snowden, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his wife havo lately been among the most-talked-of figures in Britain. They were playing the central role in the recent War Debts Conference drama at The Hague. Yet how many people, remarks a correspondent of the. "Sunday "Express," know the intimate history of this frail, brilliant little' man, and the part played by a proud, brave wife, who hails from Yorkshire'.' Mrs. Philip Snowdou made a notable remark at Tlio Hague Conference. It was this: "If you think my husband's Jirmness'is bluff, you do not know a YorkshiremaH." That remark, which has been quoted all over Europe—all over the world—shows a great woman in her true colours. Mr. Snowden would be tho first man in Britain to testify to the greatness of wives in general—because of his own wife. When he was 22 years old ho had an accident on a bicycle that mado him a cripple for life. His present ability to stand tho great strain of a political career was made possible for him by twenty years of ' ceaseless thought for him, of loving care for his physical welfare on the part of his wife, who gave up her own career to share his. Mrs. Snowden is tall, rather sturdily built. Tho Snowdens' home, Eden Lodge, near Farnhani, in Surrey, reflects her pclionality in every room. Everywhere there arc photographs. On tho study mun'filpicce there is a picture of Mrs. Snowden, which dominates the room. Beside it is a picture of Siegfried Sassoon, tho poet. The walls aro lined with books. Everywhere in Mr. Snowden's study there are little photographs of his wife, snapshots and pictures at one time of her lifo or another, to support that noble picture" that seems to brood over tho room. In this study Mrs. Snowden has played the part of her husband's secretary, typed his loiters, taken down his dictation, just as she has thought out his meals and ordered them in tho kitchen at the back of the house. Tho drawing-room is Mrs. Snowden's room. It is full of books. Like those in the study, hundreds of thont aro political. Hero is more poetry, and many modern novels. It is in this room that she keeps tho shelves of music that aro the collection of her Hfetimo; a piano that is her greatest, pleasure. The dominant, note in Mrs. Snowden's room is made by two autographed photographs of the King and Queen. It is a plain-living household at Eden Lodge. Mr. Philip Snowden is a-world figure, but within these walls he is known as a man with the plainest tastes in food and drink, whose favourite treat is "open jam tart," of which he has been known to eat "nearly a wholo one" by himself, to tho joy of the cook who made it, for Mr. Snowden is greatly loved by his small menage. . The neighbourhood sees little of tho Snowden ,'s, but Mr. Lloyd George lives only a few miles away, and visits are constantly exchanged between the two families. There is a story that, during Mr. Snowden's first tenure of control of the Exchequer in 1924, a notablo visitor sought an interview with him. "I am afraid yon cannot seothem to-day," said a tactful secretary. "They aro busy preparing the Budget." "Oh, and who may they be?" inquired the visitor. "Why, Mr. and Mrs. Snowden," was the reply.