THE MAN OF THE HOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23687, 20 December 1938, Page 4

THE MAN OF THE HOUR

♦ SKETCH OF NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN HIS FIGHT FOR PEACE Already Mr Chamberlain has returned from the Munich conference, bringing his sheaves with him. The harvest that he has reaped is the harvest that he has sown—a harvest of peace. . , His coming home was as swift and sudden as his setting out; and in that little interval of time, measured by the quickened heart-beats of the world, the whole outlook on the future has been transformed. In his broadcast speech Mr Chamberlain professed himself a man of peace to the depth of his soul. "Armed conflict between the nations, he said, "is a nightmare to me. . . . I am> going to work for peace to the last moment." He has been as good as his word; and to-day he has his reward. Out of the nettle—danger—he has plucked the flower—safety, wrote Robert Hield in the London Daily Telegraph recently.

No Pretensions More than that. He has not merely saved the world from the imminent deadly breach; he has brought into counsel and co-operation embattled adversaries, and by proving how possible it was for them to reach agreement, he has opened out a fairer promise of future appeasement to the sorelyvexed people of Europe. Something has been done to serve the future hour. Civilisation, like Orestes, has heard the oracle which may bring deliverance from the besetting Furies. What is not less remarkable than the achievement itself is that so big a thing should have been the work of a man who has made no pretensions to greatness, and in whom no signs of uncommon capacity had been recognised. On the contrary, when Neville Chamberlain put on the mantle which Lord Baldwin had put off they were not few who believed that the garment was too big for the new wearer. He was at once contrasted, to his disadvantage, with his illustrious father, and even with his elder brother. The qualities of leadership and statesmanship were denied to him, and not only by his political opponents, who assailed him with persistent disparagement and intense personal animosity. Their regard was-

well illustrated by the cartoonists of the Left, who delighted to picture Mr Chamberlain as a cunning, meanspirited, evil-working creature, devoid of human sympathies, and bent only on betraying every good cause—a blend of Shylock and Tartufe and lago. Self-appointed Task Yet this was the man who, if he were matter-of-fact in transaction and unfriendly to pleasant illusion, had obviously a very human side. Like Viscount Grey of Fallodon, he is a devoted fisherman and lover of birds, whose comings and goings it is his hobby to observe. What a primrose by a river's brim may be to him is not in evidence, though he is fond of flowers; but he can find absorbing interest in the mystery of a missing egg from a blue-tit's nest; and music and painting share the claims of foreign affairs upon his attention. He has another human trait—his liability to gout—" a highly respectable disease," as his father said, " and most characteristic of a statesman." Like Achilles, Mr Chamberlain is vulnerable in one spot—but it is not the heel; it is the toe. One sign of exceptional quality as a politician Mr Chamberlain did give. He pursued his appointed way imperturbably in disregard of all this embittered hostility, and his strength was that he had an appointed way. He ac-

cepted the Prime, IffinistershiD with a clear and definite "palrpose in his mind. It was to save his generation from another world war, 'and to abate the feuds and antagonisms by which the nations were so perilously racked. His policy—and he charged himself with the peculiar care of foreign affairswas to substitute, it possible, understanding and agreement for threatenings and slaugVter, before it was to late to avert disaster!. It is not a little ironical that it is the unflinching pursuit of that purpose which has earned for him the b' .erest hostility and the deepest distrust among those, too, who proclaim their snecial devotion o peace. i Recognising that it takes all sorts to make a world, Mr Chamberlain also recognised that 'the sacred principle of self-determination must be extended even to nations which prefer dictatorships to democratic systems of government on the Rtitish model. He saw that to refuse to be on good terms with people whose political philosophies are not the saitne as ours is a stultification of the freedom and tolerance on which democracy itself founded. His Pertinacity Imperviousness to misrepresentation, however malevolent, is undoubtedly one of Mr Chamberlain's strong points. His pertinaci.\y is not easily

to be shaken; and, though he knows on occasion how to defend himself, he lacks those formidable weapons of self-defence which his father wedded so invincibly. He gives the impression of a man whose mind is made up; who has wrestled with doubts and hesitations and overthrown them. He has shown that he is capable of swift decisions and fearless actions. His sudden announcement of the intention to fly to Berchtesgaden and meet the Fuhrer face to face captured not only the sympathy, but the imagination of the nation. Here was a man. in his seventieth year, who had never before taken to the air, resolving at a moment's notice on this adventurous excursion, for all the world like the hero of a movie thriller. How severe was the strain, spiritual as well as physical, to which he had submitted himself his visage told only too well when on Wednesday he faced a crowded and expectant House of Commons to tell his story. In that hour he seemed to have aged a decade. If he bore himself with such a quiet, constant mind, not a little of his strength must have been given by the overwhelming response which he evoked. The oldest parliamentary hand may search in vain for a parallel to such a scene in the House of Commons—a

scene in which' the " long-pent stream of life dashed downward in a cataract." It was as though the heartfelt emotion of that packed assemblage had burst its barriers in one irresistible tidal wave of relief. Never was it easier for a Minister to read his history in a nation's eyes. Perhaps, when he began his historic, his almost epic, narrative/Mr Chamberlain himself did not know how well it would end. But when the end came he knew that he had prevailed, and that the country's heart leaDt up. like the poet's, because, thanks to his efforts, it beheld a rainbow in the sky. To what further achievements Mr Chamberlain will be able to carry his policy of understanding and appeasement time will show. But this is certain—that his way has been made easier and his authority, abroad as well as at home, has . been immensely strengthened. Decidedly, he is the Man of the Hour.