BIOGRAPHY OF CURZON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 13

BIOGRAPHY OF CURZON.

AMBITION NOT REALISED. WISH TO BE PRIME MINISTER. Australian and N.Z. lVess Association. (Received September 22, 12.35 a.m.) LONDON. Sept. 21. Tho final volume of tho Earl of Ronaldshay s biography of (he lato Marquess of Curzon, who died in 1925, reveals for the first time the'bitterness of Lord Curzon's disappointment because his life's greatest ambition, to become Prime Minister, »was not realised when the late Mr. Bonur Law retired in 1923. Many persons regarded it as being a foregone conclusion, that Lord Curzon would succeed Mr. Law, and when he was invited to see Lord Stamfordham, the King s Secretary, at Buckingham Palace, ho thought the greatest moment of his life had arrived. Lord Curzon himself refers to his pleasurable anticipation in going to Buckingham Palace: "I found that tho almost ' unanimous opinion of tho newspapers was that the choice lay between Mr. Baldwin and myself. There was no question of the immense superiority of my claims, but it was Lord -Stamfordham's unpleasant duty to convey the decision of the King, that since the Labour Party, the official opposition in the House of Commons, was not represented in the House of Lords, the objections to having tho Prime Minister in tho Upper House were insuperable." Lord Curzon was filled with disappoint, merit at having missed his life's ambition. He accepted an invitation to continue at the Foreign Office, and a week later he proposed Mr. Baldwin as Leader of the Conservative Parlv.