BONAR LAW DEAD

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11664, 31 October 1923, Page 8

BONAR LAW DEAD

EX-PREMIER OF BRITAIN 1,10 Y D GKO R GE’ 8 RIG HT-lIAN D MAX IX AVAR CABINET. SEPTIC PNEUMONIA. Br Telegraph.—Press Assn.— Copyright. Australian and N Z. Association , (Received October 30. 0.45 p.m.) IjOXDON. October 30. Mr Bonar Raw k dead, of septic pneumonia. HIS CAREER SPLENDID SERVICE TO COUNTRY. Born in New Brunswick, Canada, tho son of a clergyman, Mr Bonar Law went to Glasgow to complete his education as a boy of twelve, and was taken in charge by bis mother's brother, an iron merchant. Later he inherited from a rich relative a substantial legacy, more than sufficient to keep him in comfort for the rest of his life, but lie did not abandon business, and before ho retired at the ago of 40 he was a rich man. RAPID ADVANCE,

He entered politics by winning a Radical seat for the Unionists, and his advance to the front rank was rapid. His maiden speech was as modest as it was successful. It was a rej>ly to a speech by Mr Lloyd George on the conduct of the South African war, a reply so masterly, so admirable in form and manner, that it roused the House, which had begun to listen with an *>ir of polite boredom, to a pitch of enthusiasm rarely reached by a rst effort, and when fie resumed his seat it was amid a tumult of cheers. So rapidly did he establish his reputation as a debater and as a man of wide and profound knowledge, that within two years of taking his seat ho was appointed Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Trade, an office for which his business training eminently fitted him. and in which ne did excellent work until 1906, when, at th© general election, he was defeated in Glasgow, but joon found a gent in Dulwich. LEADER OP UNIONIST PARTY.

During the five years that followed, klr Law" added to his reputation by aia stout and able championship of tariff reform; but, although he was regarded as a man of conspicuous ability, probably no member of the House, least of all himself, looked on him in the light of a potential leader of the Unionist Party. Thus, when in 1911 he wae appointed successor to Mr Balfour in the leadership, as a compromise between the rival claims of Mr Chamberlain and Mr Walter Long, the news was received both in the House and in the country with an almost incredulous surprise. Few expected that he would be equal to this high situation, but such doubts were eoon dispelled. Quickly he rallied the broken forces of the Opposition, and when the world storm of August, 1914, broke it was a 6 leader of the Unionist Party in deed as well as in name that Mr Bonar Law offered to Mr Asquith the whole-hearted co-operation,_of .himself and his party in the prosecution of the war. PREMIERSHIP REFUSED. On- the fall of the first Coalition ho had the courage to refuse the highest office in the State because he thought that Mr Lloyd George possessed in a higher degree than he that peculiar magnetic quality which is essential to a democratic leader in a time of national crisis. On the formation of the second Coalition the burden which was placed on his shoulder® was almost superhuman, and for the two last and most critical year 3 of the war he bore it uncomplainingly and untiringly. His first duty on becoming Chancellor cf the Exchequer was the raising of the Victory Loan of over £1,000,000,000. It was during this time that he suffered the loss in action of his elder son, whose younger brother had fallen at Gaza 12 months before. The strain of these strenuous years had told on his health, and in March, 1921, under medical orders he resigned office. Seldom in the history of Parliament has there been witnessed so moving a spectacle as that which took place when Mr Lloyd George, then Prime Minister, announced the resignation of his colleague. THE PARTY’S CALL.

The disruption of the Coalition in 1922 made a Conservative Government the only alternative. Mr Bonar Law answered the call of hri party to take up the burden of leadership one© more, and the quiet man who had been throughout the greater part of the war the fidus achates of th© worst reputed Radical in the Liberal party became th© first Conservative Prim© Minister in Downing street for 17 years. In jeven months he wae forced to retire, owing to serious ill-health, and since his recovery was announced little had been heard of him. “He is regarded with personal affection by Unionists cf the rank and file, and h? is more popular among Liberal and Labour me:nl»ers alike than any other Unionist, ’ wrote one political ‘writer at the time of his accession to th© Premiership, “He has a real modesty, so real as to be often a weakness, a real spirit of fairness and good-fellowship, a great deal of sincerity, and of personal and party loyalty.”