The Hawera Star. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1927. A STATESMAN’S BEST YEARS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 12 September 1927, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1927. A STATESMAN’S BEST YEARS.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Ilawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eitham, Maiigatoki, Ka.ponga. Alton, Hurleyville, Patea. Waverley. Mokoia. Whakamara, Ohangai. Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata-

When, a few weeks ago, Lord Balfour entered upon his eightieth year, public, attention was actively directed towards one of the most remarkable figures in the political and intellectual life of Great Britain. To reach an age many years beyond the allotted three score and ten is in itself the lot of few men, but to have done so and still be an active and powerful influence in the life of the country is unusual. It is a striking testimony to- his wonderful powers that he is to be in charge of the work at the office of the Dominions during Mr Amery’s tour of the Empire. Yet sixteen years ago Lord Balfour, in a memorable speech, announced his resignation of the leadership of the Unionist Party, giving as his reason that, his place should be occupied by a younger and more vigorous man. Ho feared, he said, the oncoming of the most insidious of all diseases, the disease which attacks those who, without showing evident, signs of loss of health or intellect, nevertheless become somewhat petrified in the old courses which they have pursued. Yet this plea for retirement on the ground that advancing years lessened the keenness of vision and the alertness of mind necessary for leadership and effective work has, in the case of Lord Balfour, been entirely disproved. Instead of his efforts showing signs of diminishing returns during the last sixteen years of his life, they have resulted in what history will probably regard as the greatest work of his life. Apart from his contributions to philosophic thought, his record of political endeavour during this period is a monument to his bodily health and intellectual vigour. During the anxious years of the war he was Foreign Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty; he was head of the war

mission to tho United States 5 the Treaty of Versailles showed evidence of his handiwork, and the success of the Washington Conference was duo in large measure to his skill and diplomacy. But it was in connection with the League of Nations that he attained the highest standard of statesmanship. The ideals of that international peace body 'were not accepted with new-found zeal. He had cherished them before there was a .League of Nations. The tribute paid him by an influential English paper was well earned, when it said: “He has pursued his conception of a world organised for peace with a disinterested statesmanship, a dignity of expression, and a personal ascendancy possessed perhaps by no other man of the age.” Among the nations of the world his prgstigo is unsurpassed, and probably only with Lord Grey of Fallodon does ho share their unbounded admiration for the highest type of British statesmanship. Lord Balfour affords an illustration of what is now generally accepted as a scientific fact, that being immersed in interesting Avork is the* surest method of keeping old age at bay. At eighty years of age Lord Balfour is as busily engaged as he was in the full strength of his manhood, and it is to that fact that he probably oavcs his surprising vigour in his eightieth year. He has never been a figure appealing to the popular mind in Great Britain. It is said that he entered politics to protect the privileges of his caste and to taste the joys of intellectual mastery. And while there may be truth in the statement credited to him, that “the House of Commons did not extend his mind, ’ ’ yet he Avill go doAA'n to history as one of the most skilful debaters and wily tacticians that has engaged in political combat in the first debating society of the world. But Avhile he has been in polities he has not been of it. He has always shoAvn a someAvhat aristocratic detachment from the hurly-burly of life and has found refuge in the realms of philosophic speculation. He has served his country well, and at the opening of his eightieth year we find him the Cabinet’s chief adviser on naval disarTnament and the temporary head of an important department dealing with the affairs of the Dominions of the Empire. And it was this statesman w T ho, sixteen years ago, stepped down from the front ranks of his party, fearing that he had lost “the freshness and elasticity really desirable in those who haA-e to conduct great concerns.”