CHAMBERLAIN’S CENTENARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22955, 10 August 1936, Page 11

CHAMBERLAIN’S CENTENARY

ALBERT HALL MEETING MESSAGE FROM THE KING SIR AUSTEN’S MEMORIES (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, July 11. No more impressive tribute could be paid to an Empire statesman than the manner in which the centenary of the birth of the late Mr Joseph Chamberlain was celebrated at the Royal Albert Hall this week. Every seat was filled in that vast building. Peers and peeresses sat in the boxes, members of Parliament and representatives of the dominions and colonies—among whom was Sir James Parr—mingled with friends of the Chamberlain family who had known and had worked with the former Colonial Secretary. A message, also paying tribute, was sent by the King. Sir Austen Chamberlain was greeted by a storm of applause as he rose and faced his huge audience, gripping a plush-covered desk, swaying slightly and showing not unnatural nervousness. Behind him was hung a gigantic painting of Ins father, to whom he bears a striking resemblance. Over 50ft by 21ft, the giant canvas showed Joseph Chamberlain, monocle firmly fixed, with an orchid in his buttonhole. Immediately below stood a great map of the world, with the British Empire marked in triumphant red. Slightly behind Sir Austen, on either side of the huge canvas, a choir of 600 voices was grouped, and below them were seated standard bearers with flags representing every part of the British Empire. It was a moment to be remembered as Sir Austen stood there, erect, and dignified, proud of his father born 100 years ago that day. At the adjacent table were seated Mr L. S. Amery (the chairman), Lord Lloyd. Sir Henry Page Croft and Mr Len-ncx-Boyd. A GREAT ENGLISHMAN They were met together; said Mr Amery, to honour the memory of a great Englishman, skilled in debate, of great administrative ability and of dauntless courage. His claim to greatness rested on the passionate sincerity of his concern for the welfare of the common people and for the greatness of the Empire, upon his profound imaginative insight into social affairs and on his practical and constructive genius. In him, vision and purpose were uniquely blended, and he touched no field of public life without transforming it. It was the reason why his policies still lived, and why they were gathered not merely to pay a tribute to the greatness of his achievement, but to dedicate themselves anew to the tasks which Joseph Chamberlain’s foresight had bequeathed to them. “ Many will remember the personal side of Joseph Chamberlain,” Mr Amery continued. “As a man his essential simplicity, his love of home and his friends, and his unswerving loyalty were his outstanding characteristics. No subordinate of' his was ever let down by his chief. His followers may sometimes have failed him, but he never failed them. In the hour of battle wc always knew where to find him.” When Mr Amery had finished speaking the audience stood in silence. The lights in the great hall were dimmed, and the gigantic portrait of the statesman was unveiled and illuminated; the choir sang Kipling’s “Recessional.” “ DIFFICULT TO SPEAK ” “ I find it difficult to speak to you to-night,” said Sir Austen, after the tumultuous reception accorded him had died down. “You are here to commemorate the service of a great patriot, and a great statesman. All day long I have been thinking of tne man. I think of the love with which he surrounded my childhood and tire friendship which grew between us as I reached the age of manhood, the long years of comradeship in the House of Commons, of sitting with him as a colleague in the Cabinet where, by his wish, I was left when he retired to enter upon his "last great campaign. “ I think of him as the centre of as happy and closely-united a family as there ever existed, sharing his thoughts with us, taking interest in

our interests, ever ready with help and counsel if we sought him, never attempting to dictate our course, but trusting to the atmosphere of the home he had made for us rather than to any special teaching. “ With all these memories crowding back on me this day it is very difficult to turn my thoughts to the man who seemed to his contemporaries another character. He was a pioneer of a new age, but what he preached is a commonplace in our daily life. He was the first of the Radicals to hold that political reforms were not an object in themselves but a means to an end, and that their purpose was to enable the mass of the people to express their thoughts and aspirations. “ He was among the first to preach that it was right that every child should have the elements of education free in schools where the religious convictions of their parents might be respected. He was the first to see that the great question of the day was not the franchise but the condition of the people, and among the first to translate these thoughts into action. He was the founder of the new conception of local government, now commonplace in every town and county of the United Kingdom. Few > Hien > in history found so many vitalising ideas in so many fields, whose work has left so many traces on the life qf our people. A UNITED EMPIRE “He foresaw the time when the great dominions might carry larger populations than the Old Country, and he saw in a united Empire a power for good and for peace, a power whose influence could be greater than that of the strongest if we stood.alone. People who had not his vision could not understand his ideas, but he went to the Colonial Office prepared to contemplate and act upon any plan which would give practical results in bringing the Empire closer together. He tried his hardest to influence many dominion statesmen to reach some common scheme of co-operation in defence, and he turned to economic measures and tariff reforms only a’, the last when he found that that was the only path along which progress could be made at that moment. “As I stand here before you this evening I see him on the platform at Bingley Hall, in Birmingham, pleading for this great conception, and I hear him confessing his confidence in the British people, who have never failed themselves when a leader has been found to lead.” Sir Auster received another tremendous ovation as he sat down. Once again the choir rose, and, with the audience joining in, sang “ Land of Hope and Glory.” Other speakers included Lord Lloyd, Mr A. T. Lennox-Boyd, M.P., and Sir Henry Page Croft, M.P. AT BIRMINGHAM Mr Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was present in the Birmingham Town Hall, where it was announced by the Lord Mayor that Sir William Waters Butler had offered to provide as a memorial to Mr Chamberlain £IO,OOO for the foundation of scholarships tenable at Birmingham University in the Dept Aments of Applied Science and Commerce.