ENGLISH STATESMEN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 112, 17 June 1914, Page 6

ENGLISH STATESMEN.

PERSONALITIES OF THE SESSION.

MB CHURCHILL AND MB LLOYD GEOBGE.

[The exceedingly interesting study of contemporary English statesmen in the House of Commons published t>elow is taken from the "Fortnightly Review."]

Next to the Prime Minister, Mr Churchill has been the Minister most prominently in the public eye. The First Lord of the Admiralty made two admirable and successful speeches on the Supplementary Naval ■ Estimated for 1913-14, and the Naval Estimates for 1914-15, though his speech on the latter occasion was.marred,by-its ; undue length. It occupied two hours, a;half, .and the first hour or more. was. given up to masses of figures, which, though . .relevant enough to the argument, exhausted the attention of his hearers. .But, no First Lord has ever expounded naval policy more brilliantly or convincingly than he did in the latter part of his speech, and -none has ever enabled the House of Commons so vividly to visualise the squadrons of th« sea and air. But the patriotic First Lord was soon effaced. ,by the f furious partisan who went to Bradford and sounded the charge against Ulster. . That speech transformed the political situation. It was wildly acclaimed by the Radicals and the. Nationalists. Mr Redmond pronounced it "superb." The Opposition with one accord condemned it as the threat of- a hectoring" bully. Its catch-phrase was, "Let us put these grave, matters to , the proof'and a few ''dkyfi later the coiintry found that they were actually being put to the proof; in grim earnest. Important military movements were reported from Ireland; a little later news came that the Third Battle. Squadron had been * ordered to Lamlash, in order to keep in touch with the coast of Ulster, There is no need here to discuss the real nature of those "active operations." We "are only concerned to note -that the Originating brain was that of Mr Churchill. That he had planned a great coup and expected a dramatic and spectacular success all Unionists are' absolutely convinced. ' A COUP THAT FAILED.

• But the coup' failed, owing to the incidents at the ' Curragh, and Mr Churchill's anger was : unbounded. During the exciting Army debates his whole bearing wafe that of a foiled politician at white heiait. He made his exits" "and his entrances' like a self-conscious actor who knows that he is drawing, the eyes of all beholders. He sat on the Treasury Bench with folded arms and with knit brows. The limelight, "was full upon him, and he loved it. At question time his answers were.full of.provocation, but as the questions, themselves were usually provocative n6' "one could complain of that. : He never mifised a-chance of sheering At the army of -a, ,hun<lred thousand Ulster Volunteers. Surely they were a formidable force, he jibed; and, if so, why did anyone complain that he treated them seriously'? It wag; evidently a case of deeply injured vanity. Mr Churchill felt that he had been made ridiculous. His strategy , had beep laughed at. He had been derided a£ an amateur Chatham and a budding Napoleon. It was hard to bear. Pence his sarc{Lßn?}B, his melodramatic bearing, his malignant look. A story is told'that a well : known member of the Peace: Party once shook

his head over Mr Churchill's appointment to the Admiralty. "I am alarmed,-"'-he said, "at Winston going to the Admiralty, for if, there is a war, how terribly Efficient he will be! " Ami 10, here was the, versatile strategist overwhelmed with ridicule beeausc he had ordered up the Third Battle Squadron to support the movements of some weak half-battalions of infantry—which had only been set in according to tlfe official explanation, in order to protect a few guns at Dundalk and some stores of small : arms ammunition. THE ARMY y. THE PEOPLE.

; Mr Churchill made. two speeches 011 the Army question. They were immensely successful-with all the most reckless par-: tisans in the , Coalition ranks,, fsr their violence was unmeasured. The First, Lord of the Admiralty threw all prudence to the winds. He raised in its ! most naked form the • issue of '' The Army versus the People.. " He ha<J ~re-< solved, apparently, that if. a General Election had to be fought on that issue, he;would juriip in and snatch the'leadership of the: antirArmy party. Imagine t!he situation! The head of the Navy Reading a crusade against the sister Service and accusing British officers of riiaking themselves the willing tools and accomplices of the Unionist Party in their plot against the liberties of Parliament and the People! ; Among the many reasons which moved the Prime Minister to assume the burden of the War . Office surely this jwas oiie—the desire to stamp out the fires which this incendia;ry in his own Cabinet was, busily fanning. So long as the Ih-iine Minister is head , of the . Army, common decency must prevent': Mr Churfchill froin attacking it;' And to think that not many weeks ago inahy 1 Unionists actually believed . that at: n»> distant day Mr Churchill, disgusted. ;witji the ingratitude of Radicals and their venomous attacks on his Admiralty policy, would return to the party which he deserted ten years since. Yet his share, in the I,'lster coup, his speech at Bradford, aud his .'' Army versus ■. the 'People' ■ tirades in the House • of. Commons merely a blatant bid to 1 recapture tjhe Badical favour, which he felt had slipped away from him. Mr Churchill

reminds one more and more of other aristocratic demagogues in history. He is possessed of many of the attributes of Publics Clodius and Mirabeau—their immense ability, the Claudian insolence of manner, recklessness of speech, and colossal swagger. Courage, eloquence, unbounded self-confidence, limitless ambition, but not an ounce of scruple! Mr ''Churchill gave the impression during these Army debates that he would cheerfully split the Army and Navy, and shake ,the very Throne itself in order to win a whirlwind General Election which would place him a little nearer the Leadership of the State. OUT OF THE PICTURE.

All this 'time Mr Lloyd George was out. of the picture, though he enjoyed one night of undiluted triumph, thanks to the amazing folly of the Opposition. A motion was brought forward inviting the House to express regret at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's '' inaccuracies" of statement and his habit of indulging in offensive personalities on the public platform. There' was a theme indeed! There was a rich field for a skilful advocate! What a chance to set forth the long, damning record of the Chancellor's offences! Even if a conviction from the House of Commons

were beyond hope and prayer, at least, it was thought, the accusers could hardly fail to shake severely his public credit. Cicero, indeed, once observed that it was part of a good orator's business to sprinkle " his speeches with small mendacities (orationem mendaciunculis aspcrgere), but here was an opportunity of overwhelming Mr Lloyd George. with an array of "great thumping lies!" What happened? ~

The attack was led- \by Sir John Bandies,. l)nt so, ineffectively that every sentence was punctuated Toy Radical jeers and mocking laughter. Mr Felix Cassel seconded, but instead .of confining himself to the. one case which lie knew intimately, he spread himself over the details of a variety of other cases with which he was but imperfectly acquainted, Consequently, Mr Lloyd George absolutely ignored the charges where he was patently eonvicted of reckless misstatement, and smartly turned tlie tables on his accusers by exposing a' long list of manifest inaccuracies into which they themselves! had fallen. For an hour and a-half the Chancellor of the Exchequer smote his enemies with the same gusto as that "with which Samson smote the Philistines. ; ! A STRIDING PERFORMANCE.

It, was. the finest rhetorical .performance of its kind since the great night when Mr Ure defended himself from Mr Balfour's charge of having concocted >"a frigid and calculated lie." •Even the Opposition eould not resist thespell of their arch-enemy's triumphant' rhetoric, and his masterly use of the' instrument of ridicule: For instead of standing quietly in the dock, Mr Lloyd 1 George skipped briskly out of it and became, in turn, witness, advocate, ac- ; cuser, and, finally, judge on the bench. His' play with Mr Pollock, who, in the very act of rebuking his inaccuracy, had mixed up two totally different estates; his ironic compliments *to Mr Clyde — sitting just across the table On the •Front Opposition Bench—who had taken a leading part in securing enormous compensation for a ducal client; his perfectly deadly quotations from .an old speech in which Mr Joseph Chamberlain had denounced the shameful barbarity of the evictions —the present Duke, who had dropped into the Peers' Gallery, to see Mr Lloyd George roasted, had to Jisten to these scorching words ; his crushing and unanswerable retort on those Tories who pretended that his ' 4 inaccuracies" were doing harm to the cause which they, too, had at heart —the retort that but for his campaign their zeal would never have been heard of — all this was inimitably done. _ There is a good old proverb, "Touch' not a cat but a glove." It. may be coirune-uded to those rash members: of the Opposition' who think themselves clever enough. to score off Mr Lloyd: George.. 'The resuit of the three hours' discussion was. a tremendous personal! triumph for Mr Lloyd George, and the House declared by acclamation that he. was not " inaccurate,'' and that he did not indulge in offensive personalities! So the Chancellor of the Exchequer returned home that night washed, and even varnished. Prodigious! The Opposition was made to look ridiculous. Never was a good case more absurdly thrown away. MR F. E. SMITH.

Mr F. E. Smith, wbo followed Mr Lloyd George, was very brief, and added nothing to his reputation by the little he said.*' In such a suit he should have been /leading, not following. But Mr F. E. now that he is well assured of bffice. when his , side conies in, is rarely seep .in the House of Commons. He has, iri fact, only spoken twice this Once was on the occasion referred to. The other time was ifrlieu he presented a truly formidable. and brilliant indietment against the organisers of the "active operations", in Ulster and the real authors of the trouble at the Curragh. Mr Churchill, the Minister chiefly assailed, observed that he no longer wondered why clever advocates succeed s'o easily in securing the conviction of innoeent men. But the member for Walton should be more generous of his help to his colleagues on the Frtnt Opposition Bench. No one blames him for reserving himself for "star" occasions. But he might speak much and still run no risk of being considered to hold hiiiiself unduly cheap. (To be continued.)