TAKEN BY STORM

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 124, 29 May 1933, Page 3

TAKEN BY STORM

THE OXFORD UNION

BIRKENHEAD'S SUCCESS

AN ABSURD PICTURE

After an examination for an Oxford scholarship at Wadham there name to P. E. Smith (Lord Birkcnhcad) days of that terrible suspense which is known only to those who await the results of an ordeal in which success will give the-flrst twist to their fortunes. Smith was even uncertain whether an the event of failure ho could find •the £10 journey money necessary for a second attempt. He lingered on, as he described it, "anxiously but temperately" at his temperance hotel in Oxford, awaiting the result. At last he learned that four scholars had been elected to Wadham in the following order: C. B. Try, A. B. Williamott, W. H. Anstie, F. E. Smith. lie, realised that the gate was open; and that by his own unaided effort ho had opened up the only avenue by which ho could extricate himself from the sterile life of a family business in Birkenhead. Now he could enter the lists and splinter lances with-the most sophisticated young men in England, writes his son, Lord Birkenhead, in the London "Daily Telegraph." He realised that.ho had snatched an opportunity which might be decisive in winning him future success; that whatever the future held in store for him, he would be competing on equal,terms with those who were to bo his rivals and antagonists in after life. ■ At Oxford, besides Rugby football, Smith was fond of long distance running, and again just missed hia Blue. He was a dogged-and powerful runner of great stamina, but wanting in that power of dash and finish which- makes the great three-miler. He came in. third in the University trials, finishing not far behind Lord Alfred Douglas. That he long retained his powers as an. athlete- was shown in 1920, during his Lord Chancellorship, when ho was forty-eight years of age. Ho was dining in the senior common room of Christ Church, Oxford, in a company which included W. E. Milligan, the famous Oxford runner. The conversation, after dinner turned on the question of endurance in sport. A FAMOUS RACE. Lord Birkenhead remarked that ho was still active, and went on to wager fifteen pounds to live, that he would run the circuit of Tom Quad four times before Milligan could run eight. Milligan's host and another don accepted the bet. Tho Lord Chancellor and Milligan decided to run as they stood, in dinner jackets and evening shoes: Lord Birkenhead was further • embarrassed by a largo" red carnation. . The whole senior common room turned out to watch. ' ;■■.', The race started at 10.30. Milligan at once sprang ahead, and gallantly tried to. diminish the extra-laps, but .•just as he was finishing the sixth lap he ws.a told to stop, as the elder guest had completed his fourth, and had thus won. In view of the- traditions of its past, and the formality of its proceedings, a maiden speech at the Oxford Union is ,m ordeal. F. E. Smith, who successfully faced a greater ordeal in 1900 without, delay, allowed. a whole term to elapse before he addressed the society. An opportunity came when he was invited to oppose a motion of Lord Balcarreß "that this House approves of local option." ' Sir Wilfredl -'Lawson/ then at the height of his'fame as the most witty speaker to whom the Prohibitionist movement had" given .liirth, and who was also its most proVnent advocate iii the House of Commons^ was invited to appear as the guest, of the evening and to 'make the principal speech in favour of local option. The House was therefore far fuller than it would have been for an ordinary debate. The benches and the galleries were crowded with 800 undergraduates and guests. The guest of the evening was a practised and famous Parliamentary speaker; he was preceded by Lord Balcarres, and opposcd^by an unknown freshman, aged 19, named Smith. The occasion was a critical one. Except for his successes in the more paltry arena of ■ college debate, in an atmosphere almost wholly given over to lightness, F. E. Smith had never really convinced himself or anyone else that he possessed considerable powers of serious speech. PLAN OF ATTACK. He had always desired the prerogatives of the orator: that facile power which raises an audience from the stale, air of common life, which dominates it, plays upon its reactions, and commands its moods. He knew well that the tpoken word must always dominate political thought. His plan of attack differed from that ■which ho adopted in 1906: in this exciting night at the Union, March 17, 1892, ho decided to open his speech, with serious persuasions and to conclude it with impertinences. The audience must be stimulated, but its disfavour not be invited by jests which might not succeed: Smith, who spoke directly \before Sir Wilfrid Lawson, commenced with ' a serious debating argument. .. . Then suddenly and with a carefully rehearsed change of mood and voice he leaned over Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who was placidly making notes for reply from committee benches, and in a passionate voice, ho branded Lawson's outrage at Carlisle. He said:— "It is a convention in this House, and a right convention, that honourable , visitors should be treated with respect, and their records and conclusions be challenged only by the courteous denials of debate. But tonight I must deviate from this rule. The honourable gentleman inherited a ncble cellar, in which the piety of his ancestors had laid to rest delicate clarets, sustaining ports, stimulating champagnes, and warm and ancient brandies. "What did tho honourable gentleman do with his cellar1? Ho destroyed that priceless heritage of the-ages, in which was stored the bottled sunshine of the South—ho destroyed it under circumstances of such barbarity that even the thirstiest throat in Carlisle was denied participation! "I tell you, Sir, that if in years to come- the honourable gentleman comes to me, when I am nesting in Abraham's bosom, and asks mo for a drop of water, I shall say to him: 'No, not a drop! .You dissipated greater liquor!'" The reflections conjured up by this absurd picture of Smith, who was only 19 years old, made tho benches rack: there was a drawn-out roar of amusement which told Smith that he had the ear of the House and had obtained a complete temporary dominion over it, just as the- shout of laughter, which fourteen years later greeted his gibe at the member for East Toxteth, told him that he had captured the more sensitive ear of the House of Commons.