SIR ROBERT DONALD

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 November 1934, Page 11

SIR ROBERT DONALD

PREMIER’S TRIBUTE. At the time of his' death Sir Robert Donald was working on his paper with the intention of yriting a bqok of 'reminiscences?' His material has been well used by Mr H. A. Taylor in “Robert - Donald," published recently.; The book tells the life story of the well-known journalist and editor, and brings the reader into '.contact with celebrities whose friendship he enjoyed. There is as a foreword, a sympathetic and understanding appreciation of Sir Robert by one of his oldest friends, Mr Ramsay MacDonald. He writes with native knowledge of the Scottish scene from which Donald came. “The Banffshire farm”—Sir Robert was born at Auchidoun —“is a stimulating nursery,’’ the Prime Minister remarks, and goes on: “It yields nothing for nothing; its heart is of flint, indeed of even a tougher material; it is ‘out of the way—so much so that when the spring tide of the Reformation washed over the land, remoteness was like a dyke protecting great parts -of Banffshire from the upheaval. “The people, however —or perhaps one ought to write /therefore’—know the true values of life; hardship has strengthened them for .the .fray of living. .. . z “The Fleet-Street of to-day was not born when Donald arrived. “The ‘story’ stunt was still in the gutter, bedraggled and disreputable. A news paragraph that, during the day, was found to be false was followed by a castigation, if not dismissal; the news column was meant to be, by both editors and their subordinates, the sanctuary of truth; the dashing war whoops of the political leading articles had to be accompanied by the solid offensive material of sound sense and weighty argument; .the careless reader had hot been massed as a .field of circulation. The discovery had not been made that false news and baseless -rumour, issued as news, would not damage sales. . . . Robert Donald lived through the revolution and played no small part in trying to direct it into right channels.’’

A LETTER FROM FISHER. Many of the letters which Lord Fisher wrote Dqnald in the early war years, when the two enjoyed a close friendship, are given by Mr Taylor. One, described by Fisher as a “jeu d’esprit,” and sent sometime after he had resigned from the Admiralty, was accompanied by the suggestion that Donald should publish it, with the addition: “Don’t let ou,t I wrote it. I’ll haunt you if you do.” It was dated March 29, 1916, and ran: “An intercepted letter from Lord Fisher to -Grand Admiral Von Tirpitz on his sudden dismissal from the German Admiralty. “Dear Old Tirps—We are both -in the same boat! What a time we’ve .been colleagues, old boy! However, we did you in the eye over the battle cruisers, and I know you’ve‘said you’d never forgive me for it when bang went the Blucher and Von Spee and all his host! “Cheer up, old chap! Say ‘Resurgam!’ You’re the one German sailor who understands war! Kill your enemy without being killed yourself. I don’t blame you for the submarine business. I’d done the same myself, only our idiots in England wouldn’t believe it when I told ’em!

“Well, so long! Yours till Hell freezes, “Fisher. “P.S.—I say! Are you sure if you had nipped out with your whole High Sea Fleet before the Russian ice thawed and brought over those halfmillion soldiers from Hamburg to frighten our women, that you could not have got back un-Jellicoed? — R.S.V.P.” Sir Robert Donald saw much of Mr Lloyd George during the war, and we get anecdotes of the statesman in many moods. Not the last interesting is the description of him as a golfer: “He made the result fairly certain by skilful preliminary work on the first tee. He was a persuasive negotiator for strokes. For bargaining purposes he did not rate his partner’s performance over-high, and was quite modest about his own. Having laid down a good diplomatic foundation he enteerd into the game with great zest. His handicap was over single figures; he played a good, steady game. But no silent golf for L.G.! He chatted cheerily with whoever was near to him, and politics got mixed up with his golf.”