MOURNING FOR BALFOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20519, 21 March 1930, Page 13

MOURNING FOR BALFOUR.

if (BRITAIN'S GREAT LOSS

LAST HOURS DESCRIBED.

KING GEORGE'S TRIBUTE.

SYMPATHY FROM ABROAD. PARLIAMENT ADJOURNED. By Telepraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received March 20, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 19. The Earl of Balfour died at his brother's residence at Woking, in a room overlooking the garden where he had spent many happy hours. Before his death he ordered that the blinds should not be pulled down. He asked for his valet, James Coleman, with whom he shook hands, and said : " Good-bye, James. Thank you very much for all you have done for me." Lord Balfour's last hours were soothed bv the music of a piano and violin outside the door. Distinguished amateurs p]ayed the dying man's favourite melodies from Bach and Beethoven, and particularly Handel's " Largo." The late earl himself was a brilliant pianist. Often when he was Prime Minister and. was unable to sleep at his official residence. No. 10, Downing Street, he arose and played quietly through the dark hours.

His last resting place at Whitiingehame, fn Haddingtonshire, Scotland, will be beside his mother's grave, under a tall beech tree in a little wood. A memorial service will be held in [Westminster Abbey on Saturday at the time of tho funeral.

References in Commons. Both Houses of Parliament adjourned to-day as a mark of esteem for Lord Balfour's memory, and no business was done. In the House of Commons the Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donald, said: "I am «ure the whole House will grieve to know that Lord' Balfour died this morning, and I feel perfectly certain that the House would wish to pay its respects to him, iind to do homage to his memory, by adjourning. at once." Mr. Mac Donald moved the adjournment, adding that to-morrow he would take steps so that expression might be given to the tributes which all sides of the House would like to pay. The Conservative leader, Mr. Baldwin, gaid he was convinced that the Prime Minister/ had moved a resolution which would be in accord with the sympathy and sentiments of the whole House.

Sic Herbert Samuel, for the Liberals, associated himself with this motion, which was put, and the House signified its assent by rising. v ; '/ His Majesty's Message.

The numerous tributes to the late Earl of .Balfour include the following message from the King to his brother Gerald, who succeeds him in the peerage:—" The Earl of Balfour's death will evoke throughout the Empire and from many parts of the world deep sorrow, which the Queen and myself fully share. It is a national loss of a great statesman, the last of Queen Victoria's Ministers. I shall treasure his memory as a lifelong friend, a great and charming personality, a wise and trusted counsellor."

Tributes to the deceased statesman from the leading men of all parties are published in the newspapers Among the Conservatives Sir Austen Chamberlain says that in Lord Balfour the nation has lost the finest nind that had been given to politics in our generation. Mr. Winston Churchill says Lord Balfour Was' the greatest member of the House of Commons since Gladstone. The earlier part of his political work was intermingled with party controversy, but his principal actions were national and commanded the gratitude of all.

Sincere Grief at Jerusalem

Liberal and Labour members sipeak of Lord Balfour's charming personality, which endeared him even to his bitter opponents. Mr. J. R, Clynes, the Home Secretary, Bays: " I do not. think Lord Balfour has left a single enemy. He had the restraints of the philosophic mind, and although, subtle was sincere in a higher degree than other men. He combined power with charm, and had an ability of mind rarely surpassed in the House of Commons."

Messages have been received from a number of foreign Governments, conveying their condolences. From Jerusalem it is stated the grief over Lord Balfour's death is perhaps nowhere more widespread and genuine than in Palestine among the Jews, for whom the memory of the British statesman who signed his name to the British War Cabinet s declaration favouring a Jewish national home will for ever remain green, no matter how the practical aspects of Zionism Inay work out.

The Jewish Agency and the Jewish I National Council have met, to find a suitable form in which to express the sense of loss of the Jewish peopla

Valet's Touching Statement. Mr. H. L. Stimson, United States Secretary of State, to-day paid a high tribute to Balfour's great contribution to the cause of naval disarmament at the Washington Conference. Mr. Lloyd George said: I had the deepest and warmest affection for Lord Balfour. We were associated at some of the most troublous times that ever befell the British Empire. No man could have had a more courageous or a nobler colleague in time of difficulty and stress. But the most touching tribute was inadd/ by the dead earl's, valet, James Coleman, who said: "He was the serenest man I ever saw. In 30 years' association with him I never saw him ruffled. He never said an angry word, nor one that betrayed an unworthy thought. There now remain only two former Prime Ministers, Mr. 'Lloyd George and Air. Baldwin.