BRITAIN'S PREMIER

Evening Post, Issue 12, 14 July 1936, Page 4

BRITAIN'S PREMIER

CHOICE OF MR. BALDWIN

WHY BAUFOUR OPPOSED -; CURZON

•A■■FATAL. PEERAGE

After the fall of the Coalition in November, 1922, Mr. Bonar Law had formed a .'Government, and Balfour \yas out of office for' more than two years, writes Ms niece, Blanche Dugdale, in the "Daily Telegraph." On May 19, 1923, Mr. Bonar Law received a^ yerdict-^rom, his doctors, which caused him to submit his resignation without delay.

*King George, who was at Aldershot, received his Prime Minister's'letter on. May 20. He was precluded, by the state of Mr. Bonar Law's health, from following the usual practice v of;; the Sovereign in such emergencies and consulting the outgoing Prime Ministec' before appointing his . successor. The King; therefore," telegraphed at otfce to Balfour,';^ past Prime Minister, arid a i'sejriorYmember of his Privy Council, 'asking him to come up to L*ondon next day.

i'Cnly two names were under serious conside'rafton;-'those of Lord Ciirzon of Kedleston-'and Mr. Stanley Baldwin. Tne one ;iiad'va"long and illustrious career behind him, the other was an untried and an almost unknown personality. But the one was a peer, the other a commoner. '

i-This, as it turned out, was a fatal £ handicap to Lord! Curzo'n's claims, es- v pecially so in the/circumstances of the. a moment. ,The : Labour: Party had not x asyet'any'.adequate representation in the-House;'of Lords, and it happened ajsp, that^the; Secretaries of State for j Foreign Affairs, th,e Colonies, and War,' j as.'well as; the Secretary, for Scotland, were peers. .:X'^ , ; '-i. ... s :^y;,4l|iroS.Xs.HAyE-;B?EN FELT; '/:' '■ i ■■'■'TH'ese^o^^tioas'^tb^-dppqirLting ■ an- ' otneFpyerSs!primeiMiriister must have be^p^se^i^^the^King's mind b&; ■ fore 'ftgijasjK^aVfori'Balfpur'sv'opmipn/ - t which waV''g^vei>sagainst. Lord C.ufzon, but was:ng«'dpußi'f6Mded; on; a judg-; , n^t^orihMSpngt before the concrete case arbseSfi^BalEpur L'r'believed;. "'anvl . often said;: -iythat' veven-.in.. Victorian j tirnjes, under" a more'restricted, f ran--ciiise, and before the appearance of a j Ltbour Party,^ Lord Salisbury could r h'ardly J'have--kept-proper touch-with j the fueling of the.country unless Bal- j four 'fhnnself; had!~ i'b'eeri' leading the j Souse of Commons: ;- , j £ i-There' is no question therefore which i ] Way )his advice 'was given. It seems j] probable that its effect was simply to j, reinforce the "Sovereign's decision. ( ;: It has beenI}suggested that Balfour ] intervened unasked. The narrative \ shows that this wasnot the case. Various accounts haye appeared in print -\ about?the hurried events of the days , between Mr. Bonar Law's resignation dnv'M,ay"20i and1 Mr; Baldwin's appdintmehi!| on; May--:22; therefore the exact chronology has > a certain interest. Jpn! Sunday, May'2o, the King's secretariy; Lord Stamfoirdham, telegraphed tO>B;al,four at Sheringham. On Monday, 'j2lst, Balfour came to Carlton GaraJEns ana' was visited by Lord S^tamfbirdham in the afternoon. It was on' tiie evening -of Monday that. Lord; Cii.rzbn, then in Somerset, received * message.from Lord Stamfordham asking him' t6Jc6me"tb Lohdoii the next day. wJEhe- interyiew-'-'betweenv, .them took place .on, Tuesday,. 22nd, at 2.30 p.m., the^ King haying arrived from Aldershpt that 'day &t; noon.' Lord ■ CurZjDri then /leamed''that • Mr^Baldwin h"M been i summoned to' go' to 'the Palacetsii; 3.ls.':^v;v- jv r. ■;'•■-• : .■.y-•':'";": voicES;::RAisED/ '■■'■• .'Between the Sunday and the Tuesday vbices had^been raised in London against' Lord Curzon's appointment. Balfour was Son the road from' SheringKaih. when,' on Monday morning, Mr. Amer3r"and Mr. Bridgeman, then ; respectively First Lord of the Admiralty and Home' Secretary, visited Lord Salisbury, the Lord President of the Coun- ' cil r ; and expressed their hope that Mr. Baldwin would. be Mr. Bonar taw's! successor. These views reached the' , King that same day through more than one channel. f !

'■'•. Mr. Baldwin's first Government was! riot long-lived. The year 1923 brought within' the range of everybody's vision the. .economic catastrophe which had overtaken Europe. The number of un- , employed in Great Britain was 1,350,000 at that time, and it seemed an:: appalling;'figure. ■ In these circumstances the Prime

Minister' felt it his-duty forthwith' to se_ek' a'mandate from the country to u'sqj tariffs for the protection of Bri-

Usfj industry, in the home market. Mr

Baldwin dissolved Parliament in No- \ vembei;, *but. at the General Election the-' cduntripdenied him the mandate. The^Unionists^. although the strongest party in Parliament; .were in a minority'^ in the-new House of Commons, and on ■"January-23',-1924,'. Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, assured of a majority by Liberal support, formed the first Labour Government. . : - •Balfbur . commented sparingly in wptdsupon the tactics which produced this abrupt reversal of the Unionist fortunes, contenting himself with throwing up his hands and casting his eyes to the ceiling. ' His attitude towards politics was rather detached at this time, and he probably never confeniplated any return to office.

r .j .^ ;CLASS OK RACE? t My notebooks record a conversation in; December, 1923, when the result of the General Election had made it clear that within a few weeks there was to be" a Socialist Administration for' the first tjnie in this country. A.J.8.: I don't myself worry much abqut this class antagonism we hear so much of. I think it's getting out of; fashion already. It's not the big problem that .'one'predicts for the future. But on the other hand the race problem is getting more difficult everywhere. ;Gerald Balfour: Not in Great' Britain. ;J.,.cl6n't think,wo shall ever bo much bothered, by that. A'.J.B.: No—perhaps not here. But we'can't dissociate ourselves from the Empire; Honestly I'don't see what the future of South Africa is to be. And India—though I know, absolutely nothing, about India. I wish I did. ■Another fragment of, conversation is dated April- 25,1925, three days before he;took office in Mr. Baldwin's second Government, its origin was a- discussion of the future of the Arab countries, and the possibility of their federation. "As you know," said Balfour, "many' people' have dreamed dreams since the war ended." Then after a pause: . •-■'■'■ . .': it V-partly ■ the fault of the British nation—-and Of .the /Americans, for we cafy't exonerate. them from blame either—that this idea of "representative Government", has got into the heiids of nations: 'who haven't the gpVallest notion of what its basis must be."'it's difficult" to explain, and the Anglo-Saxon races are bad at exposition.-'. ... '.',-/ ''■■'-' •

.-1-doubt if, you would find it written in :any book on the British Constitution that the whole essence of British Parliamentary government lies in th.o intention to make the thing work. We take that lor granted. We have spent hundreds- of- : years in elaborating, a system -that rests on thai: alone. It is .so deep in us that we have lost sight of it. But it isn't so obvious to others.

These peoples—lndians, Egyptians, and so on—iUtdy our.learning. They read our history^ bur1 philosophy, our politics. ~ They, learn about .our Parliamentary methods of obstruction. But nobody explains to them .that when it comes to the point all our Parliamentary parties _ are.'.'determined that the machinery; shan't Stop.; . .■,".' AN EMPIRE REPORT, At the next year's' Imperial Conference Balfour was made chairman of the Committee on Inter-Imperial Relations which drafted - report which became the basis of the Statute of Westminster, •■.■:•■.-. | He had been getting ready for this Imperial Conference for some fifty years;- and the evolution of the Empire had influenced, perhaps determined, the .evolution "rOf his -: own opinions, which had' 'already, outstripped the comprehension of the average, Englishman of that day. His apparently; reckless disregard of every'constitutional-bond but one— the common allegiance to the British j Crown—may even have alarmed those ! Dominions:,vyhere\ the. feelings of. kin-.I ship with;'thieKMother v..Country were strongest New Zealand was as the poles apart 'from the"lrish Free State in tradition and political ideals. / At first no 'step could be taken vto redefine mutual relationships which did not arouse the objections of somebody. Phrases approved in one quarter roused ■ unpleasant associations in another. Thus the;,word "independence," welcomed by the South Africans, reminded Canada too much of the history of her Z great neighbour on the I American Continent. :; A" more'thornyquestion was how to word the ■ acknowledgment of free I association of the self-governing parts. The phraseology must be proof (some people thought) against any implication of freedom to-dissociate. The dis- [ cussion in Committee made it clear thdt no,: such i implication was in mind arid Balfour was cohtent to leave it at ; that:- ,\ v ;];;..[_ .y<. ;.' ' ■ -Jv.EVEjiY WORD WEIGHED. The' ■Committee on Inter-Imperial '~ Relations struggled for more than a 1 fortnight-.\yith ■ paragraph which ■ was'to be the basis of future relationships between the self-governing Dominions.''At last-It was ready: "Autonomous ■coiimunities within., the-British I E*gir:e,";.eqli^l-ift;'status, in noway sub- j ■ ,ordinate,.;pr|efto another in/any aspect j i of>>:theirj:d6iries'ticj'or;,^external affairs, ' though'?unitidiby.a;common allegiance 1 to'^ttife'efp'isffi^ahd.- freely associated [ as'^#ftlD"ers;jlb_f. the British Common-1 ,- wealth'pf ... '.

• >Eyefy;vSvord had been'weighed. The interi'tionvh&a'.been to make, the paragrafe,th>sc^pening sentence, of the report.^Bufeßalfour perceived that it needed a setting to bring out its full importance. "He carried-.it away with him.,:ffom; the'.Trivy,-fPpuhcil Office to his own room in Carlton" Gardens. He started^ write,,late.-in the afternoon.: After s-iSaYji message* was ' sent to Sir Maurice'"Harikey; Secretary to the Committee, who'came—and found him tearing sheet after, sheet out of'the loose-leaf "notebook' he always ; .used for .his original drafts.

Presently he was satisfied, and began to read,.out!,what : he had. written. It was the section■-on.- "The Status of 'Great; Bnt'aih/: and .'the Dominions," whicfi'stands-in the' Committee's report word for' word as he then wrote it.

IJ-was^written^on ;a Friday, and he wenfcoff tto'|he. qouhtry uiitil Monday, \ynen,^by r§iij. Maurice's infuute'; capacity for taking pains, "all the Dominion representatives had seen and accepted it^-r-'-'-^.-r'-^-- -:■'-": ■■ ■ •■■'.--■ V

Palfqur" Md laid' down "another .principle as important .?s the doctrine of'e;quaUty^'i ; y-; ; : "■■.\--; ' "'.'.'■' '•'.-, - .

: FEDERATION "IMPOSSIBLE. ] ' A l iQEeigjaer A .lth£.rej3ojt..say_s]. might think that/.the fjoijrijila of .equality of status was* "devised rather to .makemutual interference.;impossible than to make co-operation'teas^.",. But such a criticismtfwould ignofie. i the ? history which made the ' tendency towards equality inevitable'" and right. : Geography forbade the'-federal solution. The only other' way was-through autonomy.. Co-operation could' be attained I along that road by/ acceptance of the fact that equality of. status does not imply similayiiEy :of'function.^

Acceptance"bT.this definitibri:."in its turn brought up pthjef..questions:'.The report, goesonj to: say:.r"lt is- the r right of the r Government' of each Dominion to advised the, Crown''in all matters relating to'itsown affairs: Consequently it would not.be in: accordance with constitutional practice for advice to be tendered to .his Majesty .by his Majesty's Government in Great Britain in any V matter .appertaining to the affairs'"' of a Dominion against the views of the Government of that

Dominion." .7 .\ .-■'' \ .... In some responsible quarters this paragraph seemed to carry- tlie logic of freedom dangerously far. Supported though Balfour was byf colleagues in close touch with-him,-, it may be that only hV could ■have carried the draft report through?- Cabinet.". "■ Respect for

his experience amd trust un his judgment had reached^ their, peak in 1926, and he'wassure oivwhatwas required, arid of-what could safely be done. It was'not until fiver-years<:later, when the Statute of-.'Westminster was debated; that the - bulfc .of- ■ the nation really, .awoke-: to: the of the surrenders which .Balfour had recommended with so much .confidence.