Forty Years a Liberal

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 2

Forty Years a Liberal

LIFE STORY OF SIR JOSEPH WARD

From Telegraph Messenger to Prime Minister

By K. A. LOUGHNAN (Copyright — Sun Feature Service) ENTERING Parliament in ISS7, Sir Joseph Ward is a veteran among contemporary statesmen and his career is traced and described in this series ot articles by R. A. Lougrhnan for readers of The Sun. No. XX

In the conference of 190 1, which Sir ( i Joseph Ward, having succeeded to the J Premiership after Mr. Seddon s death t in 1906, attended, he made his views r on the value of co-operation as the ( best constitutional way out very clear. * Jn the conference of 1911, at which . he represented the Dominion again j as Prime Minister, he stood for the < new idea. On his arrival in London i he gave his views fully and frequently i on the general principles, and with his colleague Prime Ministers attracted a great deal of attention, and < had to undergo all the ordeal of an i enthusiastically generous and splendid i hospitality. These Prime Ministers and the work they were about to do in that ' 1911 conference were brilliantly described in a leading provincial paper by the Hon. W. P. Reeves, in the “Bristol Times" of June, 1911. “The Dominions will be fully and honourably represented." wrote the High Commisisoner for New Zealand. “By birth, as in other things, the visiting Premiers will be excellently qualified to stand for those whom they govern. Our colonies have been largely built up by Scottish shrewdness and Irish imagination, and have absorbed highly important French and Dutch elements. So it seems as right as it is interesting that the doyen of the Colonial Premiers, Sir Wilfred j Laurier, should be a Frenchman: that the head delegate for South Africa should be Dutch; that the chief spokesman for Australia should be a Scottish mechanic, an£ that Sir Joseph Ward, of New Zealand, should j be the son of Irish parents. Thus i willingly does England, the ‘promin-, ent partner’ in the Empire, admit the j principle of free competition for the j great prizes of Imperial public life." j A BLAZE OF GLORY Then followed from that facile pen descriptive sketches of all these named Colonial Premiers. From that list we select the sketch of our Sir ; Joseph. “Of a more bourgeois complexion j than Mr. Fisher, Sir Joseph Ward has | inherited the leadership of a party j which in its time has startled Austra- j lasia by its daring in experiment, j Sir Joseph himself sta-ods with the less Radical wing of his party; but j an analysis of his graduated land tax, his State money-lending to small farmers and cottagers, and his ad ministration of State railways, would make British Radicals groan with envy. Lately he has busied himself with efforts to develop a well-trained Territorial Force, and has talked of compulsory service, but has not yet put it into force. A thick-set, bulky, good-looking Irishman. dark-haired and of the genial sort, Sir Joseph has almost as much energy as his predecessor, Mr. Seddon. A successful merchant, an excellent PostmasterGeneral and Minister of Railways, he has abilities of the practical kind." For a time all these Premiers and Dominion representatives were in a blaze of Press and political glory, the three recognised Estates of the Realm vieing with what may be called the benevolently usurping Fourth to do them honour; the United Kingdom clearly in mood favourable to the j new idea of Imperial co-operation. Presently all these people—the extenders and recipients of great hospitality—met in the Imperial Conference, in the Foreign Office of Britain, w-here so much history had been made and recorded in so many centuries. ASQUITH AT HIS BEST The British Premier, Mr. Asquith, opened the conference with a magnificent speech. He welcomed the oversea men; he reviewed the period since the conference of 1907, paying a glowing tribute to the memory of Sir Henry Campbell Baunerman, who has presided, giving him credit for the presence of the Premier of a united South Africa, General Botha, who had headed the Dutch armies against us but a few years ago. He threw over the proceedings the atmosphere of Imperial co-operation, which dominated them to the end. After a glowing tribute to Edward VII., the King who scarcely a year ago “was suddenly taken from the Empire which he served so faithfully and loved so well, leaving behind him the best inheritance which any monarch can bequeath to his successors—the memory of great purposes worthily pursued and the example of a life which was directed and dominated by a tireless sense of duty, and an unquenchable devotion to the peoples committed to his ; charge." Passing on to give homage to the reigning King, he expressed a firm belief that “in his reign . British Crown will continue with untarnished lustre to be the centre and the symbol of our Imperial unity"; adding an expression of his pleasure at the presence of the oversea P. emiers at the coming Coronation. STABILITY OF EMPIRE

Reviewing the history o£ the Kmpires of the world, he came to his hope that our Empire would not pass away, like them. In this he relied on. ‘‘two in the self-governing British Empire which are unique in the history of great political organisations. The first is the reign of law. Wherever the King's writ runs it is the symbol and messenger not of an arbitrary authority, but of rights S « a £ Pd by every citizen, and capable of being asserted and made effective by the tribunals of the land. The second is the combination of local autonomy—absolute, unfettered, complete—with loyalty to a common head, spontaneous and unforced, for common interests and purposes, and I may add a common trusteeship, whether it be in India or in the Crown Colonies, or in the Protectorates, or within our own borders, or the interests and fortunes of fellow-subjects who have not yet attained, or perhaps m some cases may never attain, to tbe full stature of self-government. ” He nest referred to the conflict,

once so strong, betw-cen the idea, j concentratior. and co-operation. ing on the future of the Empire-.: conflict which had now ceased, the victory of the co-operative method Centralisation, he said, has been seei to be increasingly absurd: disintet. ration has come to be regarded as impossible; the political instinct o; the race having saved us from the?; dread alternatives, is now bent oj following the middle way of ccsepe,, tion to safety and stability at t ha Empire. Having completed the atmosphe:, of co-operation. Mr. Asquith oflered in his peroration a guide for workiaj in it toward the end of a stable fe. perialism. "There are sitting at the table to. day six Prime Ministers, all holdup their commissions from the same King, and all deriving their title i 0 its exercise from the voice and this of a free democracy. We are all o! us, I suppose, in our own Parliament*, party leaders, holding and asm power by virtue of the confidence « a party majority. But each of M when he entered this room left his party prepossessions outside the door. For us to-day and throughout the con. ference there is. I believe. o*e spirit and one purpose—to make the E®. pire, in all Us activities, and tbrootl. j out all its parts, a more complete .u-j ; effective instrument for the furtbe i anee of our corporate nnity \ strength, along the old. well-trodden, but ever-lengthening and wideita; i road of British liberty.” FINE HISTORIC SENSE The representatives of Canada aid i Australia having spoken in actum s ledgment. Sir Joseph Ward spoke ij 1 his turn, expressing his thanks to tt: president, and the loyalty of kii ! people to the Sovereign. He agree ! with what the president had aaii about Sir Henry Campbell Bannerm: and the Boers, keeping well wittu the atmosphere thrown over the cotference by Mr. Asquith. In this he j showed his fine historic sense. 1 want,” he, said, “to add my person:. I testimony to what I believe has bee; j the greatest thing in the centufrom the historical point of vie* I the British Empire, in the briagb. i together of the divided States c 1 South Africa into one whole, vi: i has done an immense amount of go for that country, and has impres.the British people all over the wot with the fact that probably no Bh> people in the world than those c: Great Britain, and perhaps no ot;. Parliament in the world would ba done what was looked upon by sot people as a very risky thing.” It had made him, he said, very et fident as to what might be the «'■ come of the deliberations of the ctr. ference. Canada and Australia oac to have said this in their reply. Ti they did not is a tribute to the kef historic insight, and the abiding set of the power and proportions ti; things of Sir Joseph Ward. Befo:: he sat down he said that he cons:;ered a definite forward step shone, be made in the organisation of t¥ Empire, to help the sentimental bet: already well reinforced by the loti autonomies prevailing throughout tk Empire. He fully subscribed to Sr. Asquith’s declaration that the cobsies are each mistress of their ov; house, but all daughters in the b«‘ 'of the King. That declaration k showed himself as determined as the other members of the conferee to maintain. NEW HQPE AND COURAGE | It is worth noting that the app: dative tributes paid by Mr. Asqii'- : and Sir Joseph Ward to the late * ■ Campbell Bannerman and his «' ; were handsomely endorsed by eral Botha, as were their declaration I; of the loyalty of the Boers, > 1 had followed the fine constihrtw*^ - i treatment accorded them. "O* * > I half of South Africa,” said the G-: * j eral, “I express the deep sorrow i our people on the death of our 1* . beloved King Edward VII. From^ » people whom I represent I briflgJ* : I most loyal greetings ami dutiful nor ■ age to our King George V. . I have the honour, with leagues, to be present on i the whole Union, in the ro* ’ nations under the British flag. J are not only united countries, * ' also hearts. We are to-day in Sol i Africa inspired with new hope a: new courage, and we look forward * the future with the greatest col - dence." i CONFERENCE AT WORK [. Having thanked the Prime in glowing terms, and having a® \ homage to the King, the Confere - * got to work on its large and inter* 5 * ing agenda paper. J : Sir Joseph Ward proposed the*;; business of the agenda with a J e s '. j tion for the admission of the P&*/ the proceedings. The other CmU* ence members sided with the BJJrJ Government representatives 1 this measure of publicity. The? . satisfied that an official precis o ■ proceedings, as in the Conferenc . 1907, to be published widely daiD s be supplemented by a further *er 6 \ report after the ending of the ■ j ference, would be quite suffle*®® , licity. Sir Joseph, in view Ot expressions of opinion, said he withdraw the motion, as f chance of carrying it. If . of New Zealand had received t®*., j tion upon matters he had 5 fully he would have had no ? find. He did not put the 1314 l ward from any personal L tions, but the people of 1 were as much concerned in r . _ was doing as the people in o tions of the Empire were in l of their representatives. ** I drew' his resolution. hose-' He then was accorded tn e [ of moving the first important r of the agenda, perhaps the ge ti!ir*' ._ portant. a proposal f° r (ft p* s the first great step toward ® g isation of the Empire. It pfd r, posal for establishing nn ” Council." limr (To be continued d»9s t)