A SILENT VOICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16433, 12 July 1915, Page 4

A SILENT VOICE

Loed Macau lay, in his memorable description of Chatham's resting-place in Westminster Abbey, tells how the great militant statesman's " effigy, graven by a cunning seems still, with eagle eye and outstretched arm, to bid England be of good cheer, and' hurl defiance at her foes." The bust of Mr Joseph Chamberlain, which has just been placed in the Guildhall in' the City of London, will be a les3 imposing sight than Chatham's monument, but the message and inspiration will bo the same, and never in the whole course of British history were they more timely or more necessary. Mr Balfour, who unveiled the bust, said that he was proud to have been the colleague oE a man who had rendered such signal service to the Empire, adding that Mr Chamberlain's example should serve as an inspiration in this time of trial. It is of interest to reflect, in illustration of fate's ironic dispositions, that there was a time —say, in the early eighties of last century—when Mr Balfour would have taken no pride in the thought of political cooperation with Mr Chamberlain; even as, only a year ago, he would have smiled sardonically at the notion of sitting in Cabinet with Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd George. There is no exaggeration in saying that Mr Chamberlain,' by the transformation of spirit which he introduced at the Colonial Office when he was Secretary of State in the years following 1895, " was the greatest factor in building up that Imperial feeling among the dominions resulting in the gallant contingents " which are now so worthily helping to save the freedom and civilisation of Europe. To day we are able to announce the final overthrow and surrender of the enemy's forces in German South-West Africa. We are not indulging in fantastic theorising when we say that that achievement, with which the name of the great Briton (once Britain's enemy), General Botha, will be perennially associated, may be traced back to its potential origin, so to speak, in Mr Chamberlain's sagacious and far-seeing work as peacemaker in 1902. But it is of the present and the future, not the past, that the great Imperialist, being dead— and in this connection we might fittingly couple with Mr Chamberlain's name that of Mr Seddon, of whom also a memorial has been unveiled' within almost the last few days,—would yet speak to the men (and women) upon whose steady, intelligent, unwearying service depends the fate of Britain to-day. It is proposed to hold meetings throughout the Empire on August 4, the anniversary of the outbreak of war, to record the inflexible determin-i----tion to continue the struggle to a victorious end. Imagine Joseph Chamberlain, ip his palmy vigour, speaking at one of meetings—pasrionately, weightily, soberly, prophetically ! His voice is silent, according to prosaic fact, but there is a higher truth than the literal and material, and those patriots whose ears are fitly attuned may still ho3r that voice and heed its insistent and unmistakable message : " Our house shall stand together, and the pillai-s shall not fall."