MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11950, 26 April 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

AN APPRECIATION.

When everybody else was groping after what they are pleased to call principles, and prating about the old Conservatism and the new, or the difference between Radicalism and Liberal Unionism, Mr. Chamberlain discerned some years ago the true trend of -events. He saw it in the expansion and defence of the Empire, and the knitting together of the colonies, too long neglected, with the metropolis. In 1895 Mr. Chamberlain had the choice of almost any office he pleased in the new Cabinet. Most people thought he would select one of the great spending departments, the War Office or the Admiralty, and, had he done so, we should undoubtedly have been spared some recent scandals. " Others thought that he would prefer to utilise his commercial experience at the Board of Trade. With unerring instinct Mr. Chamberlain fixed upon the Colonial Office as the department with the greatest and most immediate possibilities. Events have proved his penetration, for it is no hyperbole to say that Mr. Chamberlain has revolutionised the relations between the Mother Country and her dependencies. 'the Colonial Secretary has breathed a new spirit into those young and gallant communities beyond the seas; he has elevated them to a consciousness, hitherto dormant, of their high destiny; he has pointed out to them their precise place and function in the great scheme of Umpire. In short, Mr. Chamberlain has "read its history in the nation's eves;" and, if that be not genius, we know "not the meaning of the word.— Saturday Review.