“DOWNING STREET MIRRORS.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 243, 30 October 1920, Page 5

“DOWNING STREET MIRRORS.”

NEW CHARACTER SKETCHES. GREAT MEN CRITICISED. London, Oct. 15. ‘‘Mirrors of Downing Street” is the title of a new book of character sketches which has created a stir in London. The author is a university professor, who held a high Government position during the war. He cloaks his identity under the nom de plume of ‘‘The Gentleman with the Duster,” which, he protests, is quite clean. The sketches are brilliantly written, and display knowledge, shrewdness, and subtlety, yet the writer’s pen is often penetratingly cruel, Mir. Arthur Balfour is described as the most egotistical of men, who would make almost any sacrifice to remain in office. The Prime Minister is praised and censured. He is, to quote the writer, ‘‘an illustration of the value and perils of emotionalism, due rather to vulgarity of mind, for which he is not responsible, than to the deliberate choice of a cynical partnership with the powers of darkness.”

Of Mr. Asquith the author says that his original Puritanism was spoilt by his marriage. KITCHENER ATTACKED. The author makes a severe and almost hostile attack on the late Lord Kitchener. ‘‘He lacked almost every grace of spirit,” says the work. ‘‘He was not brutal by nature, but cultivated brutal manners. He had the happiness of three or four friendships with cultivated and good women, but the, creature whom he loved hungrily, could never bring herself to marry him. ’ ’ Among the author’s heroes are Lord Haldane, the late Lord Fisher, Lord Inverforth, and, in a slightly lesser degree, Mr. Winston Churchill and Lord Northcliffe.

Discussing the former, the author quotes General Booth, who said that Mr. Winston Churchill stood in need of conversion—belief in something besides himself. Lord Northcliffe is described as one of the most honourable and courageous men of the day, and with an intense purpose to serve what he conceived to be the highest interests of his country.