THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. MONDAY JULY 18, 1949. Sir Stafford Cripps' Health

Northern Advocate, 18 July 1949, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. MONDAY JULY 18, 1949. Sir Stafford Cripps' Health

Newi that tho Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps, is to go into a nursing home for special treatment for a digestive trouble should focus attention upon the

strain to which leaders of any Government are inexorably submitted, especially in times of national emergency. It may be true, as is stated in a cable message, that the medical treatment he is to undergo will put Sir Stafford into excellent health in September, when he wishes to go to Washington to take part in vitally important discussions on the dollar problem, but it should be remembered that the patching up of the human frame is a task vastly different from repairing a damaged building, ship or piece of machinery, the time and materials required for such work being possible of reasonably accurate estimation.

That the Chancellor’s stay in a Swiss clinic under the care of eminent doctors who are acquainted with his . case will have anticipated results, and that Sir Stafford will be himself again in September, are to be wholeheartedly wished, for the times are out of joint, and men of the Chancellor’s calibre, possessed of the inside information he has absorbed, are not common commodities today, when the future economic future of the Commonwealth is in the balance. That aspect of the question apart, the fact that Sir Stafford has evidently been facing bravely a tremendous task which would have induced the average man to seek rest and medical care, emphasises that devotion to public service has driven many Government leaders in many lands to sacrifice health and hasten their march to the grave.

To go no further than New Zealand,’there arc on record the deaths of Prime Ministers and other responsible Ministers who literally died in harness.

Mention need only be made of John Ballance, Richard John Seddon, Sir Joseph Ward. William Ferguson Massey, Gordon Coates and Michael Joseph Savage, nearly all of whom, in the role of Prime Minister, bore great burdens of high office to the last, though well aware of the advance which was being made by an insidious internal foe. The same comment may be applied to great leaders in other lands, the case of Franklin noosevelt being an outstanding instance in recent years. Today, in Britain and throughout file Commonwealth, Governmental leaders are carrying tremendous burdens, to the detriment of their health. So far as Sir Stafford Cripps is

concerned, he clearly should have sought rest and treatment earlier, but, according to an official statement. he was anxious to finish (he first stage of the present consultations with other Governments to deal with Britain’s common economic and financial problems. That stage having been reached. Sir Stafford’s medical advisers say it is essential that treatment should not be postponed longer. Whether they agree or disagree with the general politics of Sir Stafford Cripps, there are few who have not admired the forthright courage of the great lawyer in the stand he has taken to secure maintenance of British integrity in the realms of industry, finance and economics. For these reasons they will hope that his treatment in the clinic at Zurich will speedily restore him to vigorous health.