EARL OF OXFORD

Southland Times, Issue 19459, 26 January 1925, Page 5

EARL OF OXFORD

MR ASQUITH’S NEW TITLE. RAISED TO THE PEERAGE. EFFECT ON THE LIBERAL PARTY. (By TeJegraoh—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, January 24. (Received January 25, at 7.5 p.m.) Recent rumours that Mr H. H. Asquith had accepted a peerage have been confirmed after inquiry, though it is not yet officially announced. It is stated that Mr Asquith has chosen the title of Earl of Oxford. Mr Asquith’s decision is attributed to the changed fortunes of the Liberal Party, and there is no likelihood of his re-entering the House of Commons. Mr Asquith previously refused a peerage, also the Order of the Garter. His acceptance now’ will facilitate the reorganisation of the Liberal Party. Writing in an English journal recently, Mr A. G. Gardiner said: There is nothing spectacular about Mr Asquith. There is nothing of the adventurer or political gambler in him. He is the cautious type of politician, easy-going, imperturbable, suspicious of dreamers and idealists, and with a sort of academic contempt of vulgar display and political melodrama. It was this mental make-up that toned down the wild spirits of the first War Cabinets but that led eventually to his downfall. As the war progressed the wilder spirits sobered, and Mr Asquith receded into a position of amiable distrust—almost inertia. They called him “old smoothbore.” Bolder spirits were needed —men of vision and promptness—and Mr Asquith went out. Outwardly Mr Asquith preserves a calm, disciplined front. He is almost indifferent. He stands before the public with his soft white hair and thin, straight lips, a figure of dignity and stateliness. Nothing politically can move him—the coarsest gibes leave him calm and unruffled. But there are odd occasions w’hen the pose drops, and the man becomes his human, sensitive self. He is one of the very few men who have been known to break down in the House of Commons. It is simply the reaction from the rigid discipline. Mr Asquith speaks clearly, decisively and with some force. But he is intellectual rather than imaginative. He does not catch up the crowd—he does not seek to. He appeals frigidly to reason, with a quiet, unassuming confidence that is far nobler than playing with men’s emotions.