MR. AMERY’S CAREER

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 December 1927, Page 3

MR. AMERY’S CAREER

JOURNALIST TO MINISTER. A man of dynamic energy, intense convictions and tenacity of purpose, the Right Hon. L. S. Amery, who is at present visiting the Dominion, is numbered among the great ones of the Empire. His place in history will be fixed after he has passed by those who finally record this era of unparalleled effort and difficulty, but at the age of 51 years contemporary .judgment has allotted him a high place. He is one of those Englishmen who has “done things” ever since boyhood. Born in India with the inestimable inheritance of Anglo-Indian tradition, he soon distinguished himself in scholarship and in athletics. At the age of 26 he found himself chief war correspondent for the Times in the South African War. At 33‘he first contested a seat for Parliament, at 38 he was in the House of Commons, five years later he was attached to the War Cabinet and the Imperial War Cabinet as an assistant secretary, having already fought in Flanders and been torpedoed,’and since 1918, except for the period of the Labour Administration, has been a Cabinet Minister. He holds the portfolio of Secretary of State for the Dominions in a momentous time. He was born in 1873 at Gorakhpur, his father being an officer of the Indian Forest Department. The family is a Devonshire one. He was educated at Harrow, where he was champion of the school at gymnastics. Winning an exhibition at Balliol, he went up to Oxford, where he had a distinguished career, which included a First in Mods in 1894, a First in Literae Humaniores in 1896 and a Blue'for cross-country running. He capped a brilliant career by winning a Fellowship of All Souls in 1897. In the meantime he had gained some political experience by working for a time, in 1896-97, as private secretary to the Rt. Hon. L. H. Courtney, M.P.

In 1899, Mr Amery joined the editorial staff of the Times, remaining a member of it for ten years. When the South African War broke out he was sent to South Africa as chief war correspondent of the Times and his organising ability was first displayed bv the manner in which he organised the whole of the war correspondence of his paper. Mr Amery returned from South Africa convinced of the necessity of military reorganisation and of national preparedness in face of the greater war which he foresaw. When he compiled “The Times History of the South African War” he had this necessity in mind, and he sought to make the book a warning to the nation. He was one of ‘lie few who not only foresaw the Great War, but foresaw that the Germans would march through Belgium, and that the six divisions of the British Army would be quite inadequate to resist them. After four political defeats ly was returned unopposed for South Birmingham in 1911 as a Unionist and tariff reformer. Mr Amery was a member of the British Parliamentary delegation to the conference in Australia in 1913. He subsequently visited New Zealand, devoting a fortnight to a tour from Auckland to the Bluff.

AVAR SERVICES. In October 1914, he went to France as a captain of the 14th Royal Warwicks fought ’throughout the first winter. He was then sent to the Near East, a region of which he possessed special knowledge, and with the politics and languages of which he was closely acquainted. He was sent on special service to Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Greece, the Dardanelles, Egypt, and Palestine, and served with the Salonika force for the greater part of 1916. When Mr Lloyd George’s Government. came into power Captain Amery was summoned back to England. During the voyage the ship on which he was travelling, the Caledonian, was torpedoed by a German submarine. The Germans took prisoner all the officers they could find, but Captain Amery managed to escape by hiding in the stern of the boat.

Captain Amery was now attached to the War Cabinet and to the Imperial War Cabinet as an Assistant Secretary. In November, 1917, he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and appointed political secretary of the British section of the Inter-Allied Supreme War Council at Versailles and liaison between that body and the War Cabinet. In 1918 he held the post of personal military secretary to Lord Milner when the latter became Secretary of State for War. At the election held in December, 1918,'Colonel Amery was returned for the newly-formed Sparkbrook division of Birmingham by an immense majority. He was at once appointed Un-der-Secretary of State for the Colonies. During the two years for which he held office he carried out important pieces of work, perhaps the chief of which were the establishment of a new self-governing constitution in Malta, the negotiation, at Ottawa, ot the preferential trade agreement between Canada and the West Indies, and —most important of all—the initiation of the policy of Empire eration in migration, culminating in the passing into law of the Empire Settlement Act. In 1922, shortly after the passing of this Act, Mr Amery was made a Privy Councilloi. In April, 1927, Mr Amery was promoted as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, to take charge of the finances of the Admiralty and to represent the Navy in the House of Commons. In consequence of the success with which he performed his duties, he was chosen, on being again returned to Parliament, in the election of 1922, to be First Lord of the Admiralty in Bonar Law s administration. In this capacity he took part in the defence discussions of the Imperial Conference in 1923, and was responsible for the despatch of the Special Service Squadron round the Empire. But perhaps the principal task carried out under his direction was the complete re-orientation of England’s naval strategy, the change from a scheme of defence dominated bv the North Sea to the historic strategy of Britain, in which the chief part is played by the Mediterranean and Eastern Seas. As an important element in that re-orientation Mr Amery was closely concerned with the establishment of the naval base at SmgaHe returned to office in Mr Baldwin’s administration, after the defeat of the Labour Government m 1924, taking the post of Colonial Secretary. His tenure of the office Jas been marked by two events of the highest importance. One was the creation of the Dominions Office as a Department of State entirely separate from the Colonial Office, a change which is no mere technicality, but a great and positive advance in the conduct of Imperial relations. The other was the preparation for, and conduct of, the historic Imperial Conference of last year, a landmark in the history of the British Commonwealth. Mr Amery has also been concerned

with the organisation and development of the Empire Marketing Board, the executive organ responsible for the expenditure of £1,000,000 a year on the promotion by scientific research, marketing organisation and publicity of Empire marketing in Great Britain. On the colonial side, his most notable achievement in the past few years has been the securing of the frontier of Irak, a task, involving difficult negotiations with the Turks, and in which his knowledge of the Near and Middle East was of the highest value, both against the Turkish claims and against the strong criticism of his policy in England. He was also responsible for convening, last May, the first Colonial Office Conference, an innovation which proved highly successful. In 1910 he married a sister of the late Sir Hamar Greenwood, and has two sons..

MRS AMERY. LOVE OF SOCIAL LJFE. Very slight of build, with soft, wavy, dark hair, and soft brown eyes, Mrs Amery is a woman with a great love for country social life. She has no political ambitions or aspirations (says a Sydney writer). What interests her more than anything else is the welfare of her husband and the care of her two children. Since she landed in Australia, Mrs Amery has done a great deal of travelling, not always under the most comfortable conditions. Yet she has enjoyed every minute of it. The jolting of motor cars over some of Australia’s worst roads has tired her a great deal, and it was for that reason more than anything ’ else, that she elected to remain in Melbourne, while her husband and the others of his party went off to see what Tasmania had to offer.

Mrs Amery’s slight form belies her strength. When she told her friends in England that she contemplated the trip to Australia with her husband, they said she would never be able to stand up to the strenuous travelling, the official welcomes, and the changing climatic conditions of the tour of South Africa, Canada and Australia. They told her of the great spaces in Australia, but she already knew them, for she was here before in 1913, when Mr Amery was a member of an Empire Parliamentary party. She also told them that on that occasion she did not have the opportunity she would have liked to see. all Australia, and that she did not intend to let such a chance slip again.

So far, Mrs Amery, the delicatelymoulded little Englishwoman, has fulfilled every engagement in« the tour, and, what is more, she has enjoyed every bit of it.

Although Mrs Amery is not keenly interested in sports, she plays tennis when at home. phe looks upon it more as a recreation, recuperative and healthful, than as a sport. It is something that everyone should do when the nerves are jaded and the body tired. It is a relaxation from the many duties, some pleasant and some otherwise, that assail a woman whose husband spends his days and his nights in the public life of his country and the Dominions. But if Mrs Amery has one interest more than another, it is in social life. Of this she is extremely fond. Once a week she holds a reception—light luncheon and music—for Dominion folk. She delights to have them come to her home and meet one another. Every week of her life she entertains large parties from Canada, South Africa, and Australia. She considers it one of her duties to her husband, and she enjoys it, perhaps more than any other. For nine months of the year the poFtical duties of the Dominions Secretarv necessitate him being in London, and it is there that Mrs Amery must, spend most of her time. But for the other three months there is the country place in Devonshire. Each year, Mrs Amery looks forward to her stay in Devonshire, and she makes the most, of it. So far, she has not seen any country in Australia that resembles that surrounding her country home. . Rut the plucky little wives ot the settlers, whose valiant efforts she has seen have won her heart. On all occasions she has met with hospitality —there has always been, she says, a really good cup of tea ready as soon as the official party arrived at the most outback settlement. . Although many of the settlers might have made their wives more comfortable than they had already done, she foei.d that, the womenfolk preferred to live in their canvas shacks until the land was yielding more than at present. They were content with their lot, and had great hopes for the future. At home she makes a point ot doing almost all her own secretarial work and although she has competent assistance —Miss Fining, who is travelling with her, has been her assistant for many years—she prefers to answer all her own letters. This takes up a great deal of her leisure hours, but it gives her much pleasure. Mrs Amery’s elder son is now at school in England, and the younger one has not yet started his school education. She carries with her a group photograph of them, taken with herself. She is always anxious to hear of their welfare. For three years Mrs Amery was president of the Birmingham Girl Guides’ Association. She is particularly interested in this organisation, and considers girl guide camps in the Australian bush would be ideal. Other activities in which she is keen are the Victoria League and the Overseas Nursing Association, in London.