NOTABLE VISITORS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19133, 30 September 1936, Page 12

NOTABLE VISITORS

MEN OF WIDE INTEEESTS \ CONGRESS LEADER. A ROMANTIC CAREER Tho president of the Congress of the Federated Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, which is to meet in Wellington this week, Viscount Elilank, has an unusually interesting background for a prominent businessman of "the City," where he is a directbf of Virions jn's.yrance and otiier comp.lilieS; The second holder of the title Stbafc was created in 1911, the 11th bare to of Ettrick." Forest and the 11th baroiii'tt, of Nova Scotia, he began his career An a bank wldcli he left In 1898 for the j bosition of assistant private secretary? to the Governor'of British New Gu pea. r lwo years later he became a resi ileiit magistrate in a wild area of tho a frony and as a British member of an A: agioDutch Commission of Inquiry set I'fo" in connection with native raiding red Sited the thailka of the Queensland Go teminent. Later he commanded' for a Short period the Armed Native Constab Mary of the territory. In 1901 he wentj to South Africa and served in the Ac''ministration through a time of difficulty, becoming Assistant Native Commissi pner. Returning to England in 1907 Vis fount Elibank was appointed 1 to the sti? fi' of the Permanent Under-Secretary for< the

Colonies and two years later became Administrator of St. Vincent, and then of St. Lucia. Called homo in 1917 ho was made Food Commissioner for Glasgow and the West of Scotland. In 1918 he won the St. Rollox Division of Glasgow for the Conservatives- and immediately gained political prominence, being a leading member of the small group of young Conservative)* who demanded the ending of the CoaKition Government of which Mr. Lloyd Cieorge was head. This group broke into (open revolt in 1922 and receiving wide support caused the collapse of the Coalition and displaced Sir Austen Chamberlain' as leader of the Conservative Party, : that position being taken by Mr. Bc.nar Law. Charles Gideon Murray, as Lord Elibank then was, retired' fuom the House of Commons at this time. In 1927, on the death of hip father, he became a member of the House of Loids, his two elder brothers hiving died. In 1930 he announced his; support, in Opposition to tho official views of the Conservative Party, of Lord i Beaverbrook's movement in favour of Empire free trade. j HEAVY RESPi >NSIBIL ITY Collectively, and often hutividually, tho visiting delegates cut a wide swathe in the political and commercial affairs of the Motherland, dominions and colonies. Remarkable has been the part played in local government., by men with extraordinary responsibilities in .finance, trade and manufacture- Their broad shoulders hava borne a vast burden. A member of Oh executive committee of the congress; is Sir Albert Atkey, of Nottingham, where ho has carried on a motor engineering business since 1897- A member of ; the Nottingham City Council since 1908, he has been succes-

| sively sherriff, alderman and Lord .Mayor. From 1919 to 1922 he sat in the House of Commons as the Conservative member for the Central Division o! Nottingham. Mr. Robert L. Barclay, who was chair - i man of the London Chamber of Commerce from 1923-26, is a director of I Barclay's Bank, and other financial institutions. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, served in the yeomanry, and at the War Office during the war, and is associated with the Student Christian .Movement and the Church Missionary Society. Forestry .being one of his recreations, he doubtless will not neglect opportunities to see New Zealand s hush. The Canadian member of the executive, committee is Mr. W. M.. Bilks. Jle is I president of the firm of Henry Birks and Sons, Limited, which is Dominion in : scope with branches in England and at j Antwerp. A vice-president of the fed- I oration, he was chairman of its commission on monetary policy at the 13th congress, held in London in 1933. lie I was vice-chairman of the Canadian dele-j gation to the Pacific, Relations Conferences at Kyoto, Japan, in 1929, Shanghai in 1931, and Banff in 1933. Other activities arc indicated by bis membership of the Canada-United States Cbmraercial Committee, and of the. Board of Governors of McGill University. He led the Federation of Theological Colleges affiliated to McGill (Anglican., Proshyfcerian, Congregational and' M'ethodiptV and is chairman of their joint board.