WHO'S WHO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15685, 12 August 1914, Page 10

WHO'S WHO.

M. Vitiam's appearance and manner differ from those of the traditional Frenchmen. He has not their nasal tone; his clear tenor voice has already earned for J;™ the name of " the Caruso o'f the Chamber." In manner he is not pretentious, as many French orators tiro; on that account his speech is fuller of impact; his big brown eyes look straight through his opponents. His speech is free from nerrousness, it has academic correctness. The whole man betrays no evidence of worn-out fibre, his being seems full of electric snap and militant power; he is master of current questions.

The chairman of the Dominions Royal Commission, Sir Edgar Vincent, K.C.M.G., made his financial reputation as a member of the Council of the Ottoman Public Debt, to which he was first appointed as British, Belgian, and Dutch representative in 1882,' becoming president of the council the following year. He also became Financial Adviser to the Egyptian Government and Governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, Constantinople. Ho sat in Parliament from 1899 to 1906, and in the early years of the fiscal controversy was distinguished by the ability and firmness with which ho opposed Mr. Chamberlain's policy. Sir Edgar was born in 1857, educated at Eton, arid served for a short time in the Coldstream Guards.

A large, calm unemotional man, with a prodigious memory, an instinctive hatred of anything and everything theatrical; honest, direct, tenacious— is Sir Robert Laird Borden, G.CM.G. He has been Canada's Prime Minister since tho end of September, 1911, when Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Government was decisively defeated at the General Election. He had previously been Leader of tho Opposition from 1901, succeeding Sir Charles Tuppov, who described him as the ablest Parliamentarian in Canadian public life. The son of Mr. Andrew Borden, a farmer, Sir Robert was born in 1854 in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, -so well known as the scene of . Longfellow's "Evangeline," Called to the Bar of Nova Scotia in 1878, he rose by shcor hard work to be its leader, and appeared often before the Supremo Court at Ottawa. Ho first entered public life in 1896, when he was elected to the House of Commons for Halifax. Lady Borden is a daughter of the late Mr. T. H. Bond, of Halifax, and* has played her part in her husband's career with graciousness, with entire absorption in his interests, with .social tact and skill, and with fine high courage.

The Hon. Gerald Isaacs, whose engagement to Miss Eva Violet Mond, daughter of tho Rt. Hon. Sir Alfred Mond, was recently announced, is the only sou of the Lord Chief Justice, Baron Reading, ft title bestowed upon him on January 1, 1914. Sir Rufus Isaacs, as lie is generally known, was born in London in 1860, and married Lii 1887 Alice Edith, third daughter of the late Albert Cohen, merchant, of the City of London. Fie was appointed Solicitor-General and received his knighthood in 1910. Mr. Gerald Rufus Isaacs is about 24, and has since he was called to tho Bar, appeared several times in important cases. His ability assures him of ;i big future in the legal 'world. Spoken of as a possible Liberal candidate for Reading, ho is already an accomplished political speaker. His platform manner is strikingly like that of his father, and, if he stands for Reading at some future time, ho will start with a good knowledge of tho constituency. He lias appeared on tho Liberal platform there on many occasions in company with the candidate who fought the election, and is well known to the electors,