MR. AMERY'S CAREER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19799, 21 November 1927, Page 10

MR. AMERY'S CAREER.

LIFE OF ACHIEVEMENT. j JOURNALIST TO MINISTER.. i ' " FIRED WITH IMPERIALISM. A man of dynamic energy, intense convictions and tenacity of purpose, the Riccht Hon. L. S. Aniery, viiu arrives by the Niagara to-day, is .numbered among the great ones of the Empire. His place in history will be fixed after he lias passed by those who finally record this era of unparalleled effort and difficulty, but at the age of 54 years contemporary judgment has allotted him a high place. Ho is one of those Englishmen who has "done things" ever since boyhood. Born in India with the inestimable inheritance o£ Anglo-Indian tradition, he soon distinguished himself in scholarship and in athletics. At the age of 26 he found himself chief war correspondent for tlio Times, in the South African War. At 33 he first contested a seat for Parliament, at ■ 38 he was in the House of Commons, five years later he was attached to the War Cabinet and the Imperial War Cabinet as an assistant secretary, having already fought in Flanders and been torpedoed, and since 1918, except for the period of the Labour Administration, has been a Cabinet Minister. He holds the portfolio of Secretary of State for the Dominions in a momentous time. Born In India. He was born in 1873 at Gorakhpur, in the North-west Province of India, his father being an officer o? the Indian Forest_ Department. The family is a Devonshire' one. He was educated at Harrow, where he was champion of the school at gymnastics. Winning an exhibition at Balliol,. ho went up to Oxford, where he had a distinguished career, which included a First in Mods in 1894, a First in Literao Humaniores in 1896, and a Blue for crosscountry running. He capped a brilliant career by winning a Fellowship of All Souls in 1897. In the meantime he had gained some political experience by working. for a time, in 1896-97, as private secretary to the Rt. Hon. L. 11. Courtney, M.P. In 1899 Mr. Amerv joined the editorial staff of the Times, remaining a member of it for ten years. When the South African War broke out he was sent to South Africa as chief war correspondent of the Times, and his organising ability was first displayed by the manner in which he organised the whole of the war correspondence of his paper. Mr. Amery returned from South Africa convinced of the necessity of military reorganisation and of national preparedness in face of the greater war which he fortsaw.. When he compiled "The Times History of the South African War" he had this necessity in mind, and he'sought to make the book a warning to the nr.tion. He was one of the few who not only foresaw the Great War, but foresaw that j the Germans would march through Belgium, and that the six divisions of the British Army would be quite inadequate to resist them. Alter four political defeats he was returned unopposed for South Birmingham in mil as a Unionist and tariff reformer. Mr. Amery was a member of the British Parliamentary delegation to the conference in Australia in 1913. He subsequently visited New Zealand, devoting a fortnight to a tour from Auckland to tbe Bluff. War Services. In October, 1914, he went to France as a captain in the 14th Royal Warwicks and fought throughout the first winter. He was then sent to the Near East, a region of which he possessed special knowledge, and with the politics and languages of which he was closely acquainted. He was sent on special service to Serbia, Bulgarid, Rumania, Greece, the Dardanelles, Egypt and Palestine, and served with the Salonika force for the greater part of 1916. When Mr. Lloyd George's Government came into power, Captain Amery was summoned back to England. During the voyage the ship on. which ho was travelling, the Caledonian, was torpedoed by a German . submarine. The Germans took prisoner all the officers they could find, but' Captain Amery managed to estapc by hiding in the stern of the boat. Captain Aniery was now attached to the War Cabinet and to the Imperial War Cabinet as an Assistant Secietary. In November, 1917, he was promoted lieuten-ant-colonel and appointed political secretary of the British section of the InterAllied Supreme War Council at Versailles and liaison between that body and the War Cabinet. In 1918 he held the post of personal military secretary to Lord Milner when the latter became Secretary of State lor War.

At tho election held in December, 1918, Colonel Amery was returned for tho newly-formed Sparkbrook division of Birmingham by an-immense majority. He was at once appointed Under-Secretary of Stato for the Colonies. During the two years for which he held office he carried out important pieces of work, perhaps the chief of which were the establishment of a new self-governing cbnstitution in Malta, the negotiation, at Ottawa, of the preferential trade agreement between Canada' and the West Indies, and—most important of all—tho initiation of the policy of Empire co-operation in migration, culminating in the., passing into law of the Empire Settlement Act. 1° 1922, shortly aftor the passing of this Act, Mr. Amery was made a Privy Councillor. 'ln the Cabinet. In April, 1921, Air. Amery was promoted as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, to take charge of. the finances of the Admiralty and to represent the Navy in the Housp of Commons. In consequence of the success with which he performed his duties, he was chosen, on being again returned to Parliament in the election of 1922, to be First Lord of the Admiralty in Bonar Law's administration. In this capacity he took part in .the defence discussions of the Imperial Conference in 1923, and was responsible for, the despatch of tho Special Service Squadron round the Empire. But perhaps the principal task carried out under his direction was the complete re-orientation of England's naval strategy, the change from a scheme of defence dominated by the North Sea to the historic strategy of Britain, in which the chief part is played by the Mediterranean and Eastern Seas. As an important element in that ro-orienta':ion ( Mr. i Amery was closely concerned with the establishment of the naval base at Singapore. Ho returned to office in Mr. Baldwin's administration, after the defeat of the Labour Government in 1924, taking the post of Colonial Secretary. His tenure of the office has been marked by two events of the highest importance. One was the creation of the Dominions Office as a Department of State entirely separate from the Colonial Office, a change which is no mere technicality, but a great and positive' advance in the conduct of Imperial relations. Tho other was the preparation for, arid conduct of, the historic Imperial Conference of last year, a landmark in tho history of the British Commonwealth. Mr Amery has also been concerned with the organisation and development of the Empire Marketing Board, the executive organ responsible for the expenditure of £1.000.000 a year on the promotion, by scientific research, marketing organisation and publicity, of Empire marketing in Great Britain. On the colonial side, his most notable achievement in the past few years has been 'tho securing of the frontier of Irak, a task involving difficult negotiations with the Turks, and in which his knowledge of the Near and Middle East . was of the highest value, both against the Turkish claims and against the strong criticism of liis policy In England. He was also responsible for convening, last May, the first Colonial Office Conference, 1 an innovation which proved highly successful. In 1910 lie married a sister of (lie Into Sir Hamar Greenwood, and has two sons. Mrs. Amery, who accompanies her husband, is a most accomplished and charming lady.