MR. BALDWIN’S RETIREMENT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4958, 20 February 1937, Page 4

MR. BALDWIN’S RETIREMENT.

There have been persistent rumours in Britain that the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, will retire after the Coronation ceremonies. Similar rumours have been current for the last two years. Speaking at a function in April, 1936, Mr. Baldwin answered these rumours by stating: “It will be at my own time and no one else’s. I would only add that I have had no intention of going on if the time comes when I do not feel myself capable of doing the task. We will leave it at that this afternoon.” Reports received during the last few days indicate that these reports are being renewed and now Mr. Baldwin makes no denial. It is well known that the health of the Prime Minister is far from satisfactory. He has reached the proverbial three score years and ten, and during the last few years he has been called upon to sustain a terrific strain when carrying out his duties as head of the Government. The situation in Europe has raised enormous problems for Great Britain, and had the Government not used the utmost discretion and caution the country might have been at war to-day. Some of the more impulsive politicians considered that Mr. Baldwin has been too cautious in his foreign policy, but it is well known that Britain was not prepared for war, though she is working hard at the present time to make up the lost ground in her armaments. It has also to be borne in mind that her only ally, France, refused to follow Britain in regard to applying the full sanctions to Italy during that country’s unwarranted war in Abyssinia. At the end of last year King Edward abdicated, leaving Mr. Baldwin in one of the most delicate and difficult positions that any Prime Minister has ever been called upon to face. Mr. Baldwin never sought the position he now occupies. In fact, it took a good deal of persuasion on the part of the Conservative Party to induce him to accept the leadership of the party, but when he did give in he spared neither himself nor his own private wealth in service for his country. Mr. Baldwin was never a spectacular politician in the same way as Mr. Winston Churchill, Mr. Lloyd George and others. He is a typical John Bull yet a sound diplomatist. At the same time he has proved that when the necessity arises he can act with quick decision. His sincerity has never been doubted even by his political enemies, and he has the respect and goodwill of all parties. Mr. Winston Churchill has been one of the strongest opponents of Mr. Baldwin’s leadership, while the Beaverbrook group of newspapers has persistently demanded a change. If Mr. Baldwin had followed his own personal inclinations he would have resigned long ago, but he is not a man who can be stampeded. He feels that he has still a duty to carry out for his country, and in his own words, will “resign at his own time.” He has served his country for nearly 40 years in Parliament and duripg that time has held Cabinet rank in nine different capacities—a wonderful record when at the same time it can be said that he is still held in high esteem by all sections of his Parliamentary colleagues.