THE CARES OF OFFICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1937, Page 10

THE CARES OF OFFICE

EARL BALDWIN SPEAKS

WARNING TO PRIME MINISTER

Earl Baldwin gave Mr. Chamberlain some light-hearted warnings of the cares of office recently when the Prime Minister received the honoraryfreedom of the Company of Cordwainers at their hall in Cannon Street, says the "Daily Telegraph." The exPremier, as Honorary Assistant of the Company, had the duty of presenting his successor to the Master, Wardens, and Commonalty. "I think it is an extraordinary good thing for a Prime Minister to be closely associated with one of the great Companies of the City of London," said Earl Baldwin. "It is-a good thing for more than one reason. It is a constant reminder to us not only of the continuity of our English history, but of the continuity—which is much more interesting—in the habits and.customs and mentality of that strange creature of whom I am proud to be one —the Englishman." . ■ . ; Lord Baldwin referred to the work of the early craft Guilds and to their anxiety about the presence of aliens in towns where the crafts were. That was a problem which had occurred in our own times also. He quoted a similar parallel, between early Guild rivalries and the disputes of overlapping unions in the modern shipbuilding industry. COBBLING STILL NEEDED. "Thank God," he commented, "thathuman nature remains unchanged by any modern improvements or by anything that can be done to the Englishman. So when the Prime: Minister meets a problem of this kind, let him not imagine for. one moment, that the Bolsheviks are going to take control of this country. ' ' "From my own experience I know that when one first becomes Prime Minister one feels that there is nothing that one cannot accomplish. As a new Cordwainer, he will feel that he wants new leather and that he will make all things new. I wonder. I hope so., "But I am sure that in this world there is an awful lot of botching and cobbling to be ■ done yet. It may well be that he will have to use old leather in. his cabinet and old leather in his methods. I hope that hie will never be called up before the Warden for doing more cobbling than :ordwaining." (Cheers and laughter.) Lord Baldwin referred to the shadow which had .been cast over the cere-

mony by the death of Sir Austen 5 Chamberlain. It was Sir Austen, then i Master of the Cordwainers' Company, c who had invited him to present Mr. i Neville Chamberlain. He- had looked i forward to a gathering where Master - t might have received brother, but that c was not to be. 1 The Prime Minister, after he had j been presented with the honorary c freedom and the red-and-black hood t of the Company and had taken the E oath, also referred to his brother's I death. . "He was very earnestly, interested in " this ceremony," said Mr. Chamberlain, "and you might perhaps like to know , that the very last letter I,had from , him, written only a few days before i his death, was upon the subject of the ceremony which is taking place today. v It may.be that he is looking on, s approving. r A LONG CONNECTION. "Lord Baldwin has mentioned that I c am Prime Minister. I do not think it n is so often present in my mind as per- E haps it used to be in his. But I do like 1 to think that this invitation from the S Court was not given to me because I I was Prime Minister. It was extended h months before that event took place, ji and when you could not possibly know v that it ever would fake place, it was c not even given to me because I was p Chancellor of the Exchequer, though I s i know that this is something for which s everybody has frequently expressed their thankfulness. (Laugh.ter.) "The invitation was given to me on account of m/ 1-ng family connection with the Company. We go back for 200 years, when William Chamberlain was admitted to the Company in 1739. For those 200 years there never has been a time when some members of my family have not been on the Court of the Company. cc

"Although 1 cannot boast of the blueness of the blood in my veins or of the fame of my forbears, I am yet prouder of being descended from those respectable tradesmen, as they were called, than if my ancestors had worn shining armour and carried great swords.

"It is many years since we had a business connection with cordwaining. I do not think that even in those palmy days its profits were such as to have qualified my ancestors for liability to N.D.C., if N.D.C. had then been in existence. (Laughter.) We found other means of keeping body Vid soul together, but we have not yet forgotten our old connection.

"Now I am the latest recruit to your ranks, and I do most deeply appreciate your feeling that you would like to keep up this long connection between my family and your Company, and I am glad to think that after I am gone, it may be continued by my brother's descendants." .(Cheers.)