MR CHAMBERLAIN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12999, 15 December 1902, Page 2

MR CHAMBERLAIN.

HIS SOUTH AFRICAN TOUR. [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, Oct. 31. /. Air Chamberlain's impending trip to South Africa is quite a new departure, the like of which is not to be found in the record? of the Colonial Office nor, for the matter of that, in the history of British Cabinets. A British Cabinet certainly has sent a Prime Minister and a Foreign Secretary to a Berlin Congress, but no Cabinet has before sent, out the. Minister of a Department to take stock on the spot for himself. More's the pity. Gan wo ;iow say. " Here begins a new method of administration'.'" I have said ‘‘No Cabinet has sent out,"’ but perhaps it should be written "has acquiesced in a Minister's desire to go out,” for of a surety the motion .was Mr Chamberlain’s own.

Of course the Opposition newspapers, and the Continental Press, and American.

“ yellow ’’ journals are indulging freely in speculation as to the real cause of the Colonial'Secretary’s voyage, which null bs the longest sea trip he has- yet undertaken. He has been more than once to America —< once on a mission, the success of which is testified by the charming and accomplished lady who is hostess at Highbury—he had one stormy voyage to the Bahamas at a. time when he was more than slightly interested in Sisal planting, and also to Malta last year; hut, as travellers go nowadays, Air Chamberlain cannot claim any eminence on the score of his oversea trips. Concerning his trip to come, the Radical papers at Home profess to sec in the Colonial Secretary's desire to spy out the land in South Africa two things. The first a failing belief in Lord Milner’s administrative capacity; the second, a desire to escape as much as possible of the odium which is to accrue, to the Ministry by reason of'their forcing through the new Education Bill. In the anti-Milner notion some ol the Yankee and Continental papers concur with our Radical Press, hut only an ex-admirer of Joseph of Birmingham, oti.ld pnssibjy conceive the idea that the redoubtable Secretary of State for the Color nies would trump up an excuse for. getting) to cover whilst a big fight is in progress,, in which the fortunes of the Ministry, in whii-h he is probably the strongest ma n ,i are at stake.

Mr Chamberlain wisely declines to ho drawn, even by friendly constituents, into any remark upon his mission. He goes to South Africa to see and to inquire, and the results of his observations will be laid he-' fore his colleagues aud the Sovereign before theyi are communicated in any shape to the public. The “ Debats ”at Paris, and the “.Evening Post” at New Yovk arc ab* snrdly conspicuous in the confidence with which they declare that one purpose of the mission is to disavow Lord Milner and to ; bring about his resignation or recall. That is absurd. The Government has constantly' and emphatically expressed its confidence in that statesman, and, whatever else Mr Chamberlain's visit may mean, it does not mean that tliht confidence has been shaken .in the slightest degree. Equally"unfounded' is the opinion avowed hypro-Boft quarters that the Home Government is to reconsider the situation. There iAgiotliing to reconsider. The late Repulflp hayc. become once and for all integr*Bortioris of the British Empire, and occurred which will alter that govevmPg fact. B,ub upon the innumerable question*! of detail which have to be settled it is desirable to have first-hand information, and Mr Chamberlain is taking the most effectual means to obtain it. As for Londoners, and English people generally, wo entertain no extravagant hopes that the Colonial Secretary's visit will put an end to all difficulties between Briton and Boer, hut, as business people, we like to see a business man going to make himself acquainted at first-hand with a matter of serious national business with which he has to deal We do not doubt, for example, that Mr Chamberlain 'has very clearly fixed in the back of his head) what in his judgment tho amount of the Avan contribution from the now colonies should be. But avo are sure he has for«! no irrevocable determination as to th®prm in which it should be forthcoming, W has an open mind to receive™ representations from all interested quarters on the. subject. That, however, is only one of the many subjects that -will claim his attention during 'his visit, which will, it is to be hoped, he but a prelude to further Avandorings in tho Britains beyond Seas. Precedents are being sought for the visit of a Colonial Secretary to the Colonies. If avc look across tho Channel such a precedent may be found. In the Ministry of M. Meline the Colonial Secretary Avas M. Andre Lebon, tho mart avUo ordered Captain Dreyfus to be put in double irons. In 1897, M.‘ Lebon visited the 'French West African Colonics, chiefly for the purpose of delivering a bellicose speech at St Louis. Before starting ho left Avith the “Temps” the text of his impassioned discourse, Avhich Avas notable, for tho declaration that Franco possessed a series of posts, across Africa from Senegal to Abyssinia. Fashoda. Avas meant to complete the chain, but didn't.

Mr Chamberlain, Avhon he. opened the most notable chapter in his career, had not. it is said, seen a square mile, of the British Empire outside the United Kingdom, and the dominions over seas which ■he has so strenuously striven to bring into qloser touch with Ithe Motherland were merely countries he had read about in books. His critics even uoav sometimes refer to him as the Colonial Secretary who has nover seen a colony, and in a sense this is true, for Malta, to Avhich the Colonial Secretary paid a visit last year, is more properly described as a “ possession.” But Air Chamberlain has made four notable trips abroad as a statesman puna' . and simple. He, with his great faith in. firsthand information, went to Gothenburg to study the licensing system, ns he Avcnt to Malta to study the political situation there ; and he has been twice to America on a political mission.

It was in the first year of Parliamentary life that 'Mr Chamberlain visited; Sweden, and came back with a strong belief in the Gothenburg system. He went round the saloons with the Chief of Police, and after some time said to that official; “I have seen enough of this class of house : I want lo go to the worst in Gothenburg.” “This is the worst house—this is the very worst house in Gothenburg,” said the Chief Constable, and Mr Chamberlain, who declared the house to be .more respectable than dozens of houses in Birmingham or London. fixed his faith in the munieipalisation of the drink trade. Mr Chamberlain’s next mission abroad brought, him for the first time into international prominence; It was the visit to for the settlement of the dispute between the United States and Canada on the fisheries question, and on the. eve of his . departure Mr Chamberlain made a. speech at. Islington which roused an angry storm against 'him on both sides of the .Atlantic. 'England, he had just said in Ulster, was in rrenter danger than in the time of (he Spanish Armada; and. sneaking to his hfother.’s constituents at Islington, he denounced the. Irish in America;, and declared that thev had always tried to sow discord and ill-will between England and the States. The American papers warned Mr Chamberlain that ho could not possibly succeed, but the member for Birmingham faced the'hostile feeling, and snout five months in America. He had armed the Opposition against him and the Senate refused lo ratify the agreement; but before his mission was over Air Chamberlain had signed two treaties. One of his prized possessions is -.a sinned photograph of herself which Queen Victoria gave him on bis return. Bur Queen Victoria’s portrait is not, the only souvenir Mr Chamberlain has of his American mission, l! was at Washington that ho met his wife. ■ I was fortunate enough to make two .~eaties,’’ aid Mr Chamberlain to- his Birmingham friends. “ I had my secret docu-m-mt with which you are all familiar, and

I am glad to say that even the august Senate of the United States had nothing to say to my private negotiations, Avhich you have ratified to-pight by your presents and proceedings.” “t: have done all in my power to promote union, between the trvo countries,” Mr Chamberlain added Avith a smile. In Mr Chamberlain’s absence his understudy, Lord Onslow, who has some firsthand knoAvledge of the Britains beyond tho Seas, and has had tjvo years in Avhich to master his principal’s methods, ivill run the: Department, in Downing Street. His close, association Avith Mr Chamberlain has, many .aver, been demonstrated more than once in the House of Lord's Avhere, of course, he figures as the Colonial Secretary's “ Ayhipping boy.” It may be said, boAvever, that Lord Odsloav more often figures as the man Avith the Avhip than in the, other role, for his methods when heckled are as caustic as those of his principal. In the Commons; on dit, Mr AustinGhantberlain Ayill, at question time, double the part of Colonial Secretary and Post-master-General. Ho is physically and mentally a chip of the old block,, and to “play papa” for a time should present no difficulties for him, but rather tend, as one writer suggests, to “mellow his general parliamentary performance.”” Snipe gossips averred that Mr Chamberlain’s trip to South Africa Ayoukl be rounded off by a, visit to Australia, and NeV Zealand. On the face of it this rumour looked uncommonly like an untruth, but I pre\ ferved to get a denial from the fountain head, and so wrote, to the Colonial Secrcfairy asking a question. The answer thereto,' signed by Mr Howard, one qf Mr Chamberlain’s henchmen, runs thus;

“ Dear Sir,—Mr Chamberlain desires me to acknoAvlcdge the receipt of your letter of the 28th instant, asking whether he proposes to include Australia apd Ncav Zealand ip ]iis forthcoming tour, apd to ■inform you tlmt the answer' is ip the negative."