MR BALDWIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 153, 31 May 1937, Page 9

MR BALDWIN

NEWS OF RETIREMENT. A MEETING IN WORCESTER. An hour before tho annual meeting of the Bewdley Division Conservative Association was duo to begin on April 10 people began to arrive at the Guldball at Worcester. Half an hour later the hall was thronged: and the streets outside were crowded with those unable to obtain admission. The true blues of Worcester were determined to pay fitting tribute to the man who had represented them for 29 vears (wrote Mr A. Beverley Baxter, M.P.,-in the Sunday Times). They knew that Mr Baldwin’s speech would be his farewell.

When, punctually at 2.30, Mr and Mrs Baldwin appeared, the audience stood and applauded for a full minute. Mr Baldwin glanced quickly about him, taking in familia.r faces and noting new ones. The scene was worthy of Ilia study. This was England—a setting and a crowd completely and undeniably English. From the life-size portraits of ex-Mayors on the walls —each one looking as if he were master in bin own house as well as in the Guildhall—to the quietly-dressed but pros-perous-looking .audience it was solely and compellingl.v English. Mrs Baldwin was the smartest dressed woman present, but the Prime Minister’s trousers suggested .a professional indifference to the art of the presser. As usual, he seemed calm and in good humour, but to one who has seen him in many trying situations in the House of Commons it was obvious that he was labouring under an emotional strain.

When the customary vote of confidence was moved in the member there was the warning note that they expected sorrowful news from him. At once the meeting grew tense. Mrs T. Lea, seconding the motion, spoke movingly of “our member who not only represents this constituency in Parliament, but in himself embodies the qualities which we value most in this country —sincerity, integrity and common sense.” ~ NO CHEERING.

Mr Baldwin rose to his feet. Spontaneously, we did the same. There was

no cheering. It was too sincere for that, too shy, too English. To have started “For Tie’s a Jolly Good Fellow” in that atmosphere would have been a gross vulgarity. Without consulting a note, the Prime Minister spoke for half an hour. It was a beautiful speech, In the circumstances, it was a great speech, for he strirred the emotions without once permitting -them to get out of hand. It was as if he were saying: “You and I both know that this is dangerous moment. I am saying good-bye to you after 29 years. In that 29 years you have stood by me in bad weather and good, and when we meet again all this will belong to history.

“Emotions as deep as ours must not be cheapened by tears on your part or by faltering words on mine. If you will help me, I promise that I shall respect that which is better kept within our hearts.”

There were shining eyes on every side, but not , once did Mr Baldwin’s voice tremble and not once did lie descend to the theatricnlism of the situation which would have tempted almost any other man. NO SON TO FOLLOW.

He spoke of his first coming to the selection committee, when he drove behind two horses. That memory was used to emphasise the argument that acceleration does not always mean progress. Ho spoke of succeeding his lather as their member, and wished that a son of his would take Ills place. But oven that disappointment in the Premier’s life was told so that lie could urge the association to give full support to his sucecsesor. It was in many ways a simple, homely speech; and in many ways a statesman’s speech. He contended that he had been praised too much in his time and condemned too harshly. Ho spoke of the strain of office, and said that a man should go before he could give less than his best. Those who were there will never forget the compelling humanity and simple dignity of it all. Outside in the streets the crowds were waiting to cheer. But the people who had heard him filed slowly out with hardly a word. They were losing their member, the man who had sprung from their own soil to become the greatest of living Englislnneif. More than ever, I felt that I was I an intruder in a personal grief that

belonged peculiarly to the people of Worcester. Mr Baldwin resigned the Premiership on Friday.