BONAR LAW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22198, 27 February 1934, Page 2

BONAR LAW

SON'S REVELATIONS f From . Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 12. Speaking at a dinner of the Authors' Club, Mr Richard Law, M.P., referred to his late father, Mr Bonar Law, and revealed him in rather a new light. • "My father" is generally supposed,to have been rather unsociable," he said. " True, he eschewed society with a big 'S,' but ho was, in fact, the moat friendly of creatures, and regarded everyone with whom he came in contact—whether personal friends, secretaries, or servants —as human beings, each of some special value. That is rather unusual in persons in the position which he occupied. " Another general supposition is that my father was a melancholy man. I do not * believe he was. Generally speaking, he was an extraordinarily happy man. Though not effervescent or buoyant, he had an equipoise, a mental balance which amounted to happiness. "It is true he had his bad patches. This was because he attached an extraperhaps extravagant, value to human relationships, and when anyone of whom he was fond died he was thrown into utter despair. When my brother was killed and when my mother died he had everything which reminded him of them removed out of .the way. " Such an attitude towards death is more characteristic of primitive and violent natures, and is odd in one with such a balanced mind."

The general view that Mr .Bonar Law was an exceedingly ambitious man was more than confirmed. As a young man in Glasgow he was imbued with a desire to enter politics, and was a member of the local debating society and Parliament in order that he might get practice in speaking. He used, too, to attend the baiikruptcy cases in which his firm were creditors for the sole reason of hearing himself speak. He sought all the practice he could in public speaking. " From his earliest days, said Mr Law, " he wanted to take part in great events and to take some share in the shaping of them.

" But there was a kind of refinement in his ambition. He wanted to be a great and prominent man on his own terms. Shortly .before his death, in one of his rare moments of confidence he said to me that whatever had come to him in life lie had never lifted a finger to get it. " That is, unfortunately, true. I think if lie had been a little bit more pushing and a little less self-effacing it would have been better for himself and tbe country."