BRITISH STATESMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18281, 23 December 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

BRITISH STATESMEN.

BY E. T. RAYMOND,

MR LLOYD GEORGE.

Despite some diminution in his prestige, we have still to place Mr. Lloyd George on any list of possible Premiers of the future. It may also be said that he himself was the Coalition. The victory at the polls in 1918, so far as it can be considered more than the mandate for a strong pence, was his personal triumph. The policy then approved was his policy. The methods of government since have been his methods. Ho alone possessed the force of personality necessary to supply the want of that binding power which comes of a common habit of thought and a vital political creed. There were several men in the Government perfectly competent to lead an Administration based on fairly homogeneous Parliamentary support. Mr. Georgo alone had the knack of keeping together so queerly assorted a team as that which he has driven on the rough post-armistice road

Mr. Lloyd George's great trouble was tho absence of a strong following which ho could call his own. He balanced hinv self, like a Japanese acrobat, now on the Conservative and now on the Liberal leg. despite the fact that one was a good ileal shorter than tho other.

There are two possible situations which would permit of Mr. George's early return to power. One is the formation of the much-talked of Centre Party, virtually merging moderate Conservatism and National Liberalism into a single body. But this, to say the least, is not probable. The second possibility is that Mr. George should become, for all practical purposes, a Conservative statesman; and the analogy of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain is quoted in support of this. For my part I cannot see Mr. George in any such character. Ho has himself said that he will "throw up his brief" rather than accept the position of "counsel for the old order of things." It is not so much a difficulty of dogma as one of imagination. Mr. George's great strength is that, though he may appear many things to many men, he is at bottom naturally and unshamedly himself. A« a Conservative he could not be himself. The village boy, the Welsh Nonconformist, and Radical innovator and idealist lie too near the cord of his personality for him to acquire the tone and temper fitting the head of a party which must stand mainly for things as they are, or lose its reason for being.

A mental accent is of all things the most difficult to eradicate; and if Mr. George wore to attempt to acquire the accent of Conservatism he would, bo to speak, be certain to drop his aspirates. Though itjred, he is still a young statesman, with great possibilities before him, and though ho might consent to head another mixed Government, it is oxtremely improbable that he would agree to have his policy chosen for him, Viscount Grey. There are two things which the great mass of men and women, Conservative and Liberal, especially desire. One is a cafe, sane, unspectacular foreign policy, administered by someone who commands confidence, not only in Great Britain, but throughout tho world. Tho other is a return to strict constitutionalism and humdrum, unimaginative, and economical domestic administration. The country wants assurance against brilliant improvisations and legitimate gambles abroad. It wants restricted expenditure and no grandiose ideas at home.

Now Lord Grey stands especially for a return to the old diplomacy; Mr. Asquith for the restoration of Cabinet authority and Treasury control. Both statesmen would be an asset to any Gov. ernment which aspired to restore confifldenco at homo and abroad. But there would, for many reasons, be great advantages in giving Viscount Grey not only a place, but the chief place, in suoh a Government. It is not easy to name anybody else, except Lord Balfour, whose age is a handicap, so well-fitted to harmonise a mixed Cabinet and give it tho tone of a true Coalition. There is no country in which Lord Grey's name ia not known, and none in which his character fails to command respect. At homo ho is known to every political group as an honest and moderate man, and it is no small consideration that Labour recognises him as no les3 sympathetic than rane.

Though a sincere Lioeral and a convinced democrat, he would have no difficulty in working with Conservatives, for he possesses in supreme measure, that capacity for compromise, that knack of non-committal but straightforward cooperation with men who were opponents yesterday, and may be opponents tomorrow, which distinguishes the English caste to which he belongs. As a matter of fact, the main lines of his foreign policy were Conservative; he inherited it from one Conservative statesman, Lord Lansdowne, and transmitted it to another. Lord Balfour.

1 am no blind admirer of Lord Grey. He is not a heaven-born genius; all that can be expected from him on the intellectual side is plain common-sense, tempered with idealism. He will work no miracles, provide no dramas. There is no legend about him ; even that which existed ten years ago, the legend of cold infallibility, has gone. We know that he was by no means infallible, and that he was sometimes not a little ingenuous. But he possesses just those qualities which have supreme value when the main desideratum is not brilliance, or adroitness, or the power of winning affection. or provoking wonder, but simple dependability. Lord Grey is altogether depend able. People everywhere know that he is almost more than disinterested ; he is uninterested. He has no axe to grind, no popularity to trouble about, no troop of friends to provide for, not even party interests to serve, for his aloofness from the Liberalism of the caucus is notorious.

Lord Birkenhead chaffed Lord Grey severely for his assumption of a "pontifical" style. The charge is quite true; Lord Grey is pontifical. But is that altogether a defect? An excess of the opposite qualities has probably had much to do with the vague distrust, never entirely dispelled by the most brilliant and unanswerable explanations, which has closed the recent Coalition. On tho whole the British people like the pontilii.al stvlo in statesmanship, and foreignpis undoubtedly have a preference for it. A judge might give us as good law in ■i jockey's, silks as in his robes and fur, but his judgments would seem less indisputable. So with Lord Grey; his solemnity may not be all wisdom, but it increases the effect of the wisdom he really has. His manner suggests what is tlie fact that he always means what he says and says what he means : and that is no disadvantage, whether in dealing with a deputation of Trade Union leaders or a conference of European Ministers.