RULER OF KENYA

Northern Advocate, 25 November 1925, Page 11

RULER OF KENYA

A ROMANTIC CAREER,

SCHOLAR SOLDIER, AND STATES MAN.

Lieut-Colonel Sir Edward Grigg, K.C.V.0., C.M.G., D.5.0., the new Governor of Kenya, is only 40 years of age. But already he has had a career more varied and more interesting than falls to the lot of most Englishmen, and in everything he has undertaken he has generally been successful. He has been by turns

journalist, traveller, soldier, administrator, and member of Parliament, and ■it is his unique distinction to have been secretary to the Prince of Wales, to a Prime Minister, and to the Rhodes Trust. Grigg was at Winchester and at New College, Oxford, and at the University he won the Gaisford prize for Greek verse, writes "A Friend," in the London "Daily Mail." He began his journalistic work, like several other well-known men, as secretary to Mr G. E. Buckle, then editor of '' The Times," but after a year went to assist Mr J. L. Garvin in that enthusiastic enterprise, /"The Outlook." Afterwards he travelled for a couple of years in India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, and he was still at the other end of the world when the late Lord Northcliffe, on acquiring '' The Times,'' telegraphed in- ' viting him to return to Printing House Square as colonial editor. For the next four years he remained on "The Times," incidentally again visiting Canada and the United States twice, and India once; but then the activities of the "Round Table" group attracted him, and he became joint editor of that journal with Mr Philip Kerr. In the Great War he seemed to have found his true vocation, for on joining the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards he was made, after a year in tho trenches, G.S.O. 3 of the Guards Division in March, 1916. He was briga-dier-major all through the Somme, and after filling varous important staff appointments, was made G. 5.0.1. of the Guards Division in March, 1918, and took over in the midst of the great German attack. 1 have heard the late Earl of Ypres say more than once, in his downright way, that "any fool can become a bngadier or even a divisional commander, but for young Ned Grigg, without r n orf? eCI ? influence > to finish up as G. 5.0.1 of the Guards Division, and to have done his job' well, was tho most astonishing performance of tho whole war." It is no secret that Grio-o-might have had far higher promotion but he preferred to stay with the Cxuards. Grigg's later career has been much more in the public eye. Mr Winston Churchill brought him back from Cologne in 1919 to become Secretary! of the Army Reorganisation Committee, but very soon the Prince of Wales, who had served with him in the field, re- j quested him, in view of his knowledge j of the Dominions, to accompany him I on his two tours, to Canada and to i Australasia and the West Indies, as his military secretary. Just when everyone thought he would continue to hold a Court appointment, as no doubt he might have done, Grigg once more surprised his friends by becoming* private secretary i to the Prime Minister, Mr Lloyd ' George. He had always been a moderate Liberal, but the real explanation was that the dominating passion which was governer by his whole career j is faith in the future of the British i Empire. He originally went to Downing Street to help in the 1921 Imperial j Conference but was also a prominent figure at the San Remo and Genoa conferences, and remained with Mr Lloyd George until the Coalition fell. Loyalty to his chiefs is one of Grigg's strong characteristics, and a warm personal regard subsists between him and the political recluse of Cliurt. Many smiled again when Grigg, Oxford man and Guards officer, went down to Lancashire and sought political honours amid the clogs of Oldham; but. again he proved right, for he won Oldham three times, and on the first occasion headed the poll. During this period he won a greater prize in the Hon. Joan Dickson-Poynder, the only daughter of Lord and Lady Islington, who has done a good deal of social work in" the East End. He has only just resigned the secretaryship of the Rhodes Trust. Sir EdwarTl Grigg goes to Kenya with a wealth of experience and with a mind unbiased by prejudice. He is understood to believe that the Labour problem can be solved on just lines, ! that the rightful interests of the nation must be studiously conserved, but that tho ten thousand white settlers j acquired their stake in the country at i the invitation of tho British Govern- [ ment, and their claim to a larger and j more direct voice in the settlement of 1 the;r own affairs must lie sympathej ticallv considered.