A GREAT IMPERIALIST.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 128, 6 July 1914, Page 7

A GREAT IMPERIALIST.

MR CHAMBERLAIN'S DEATH.

WORLD WIDE SYMPATHY.

TRIBUTES OF ADMIRATION. FUNERAL CEREMONY TO-DAY. By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright. LONDON, July 3. 0 The King sent the following message to Mrs Chamberlain: —"The Queen and J assure you of our heartfelt sympathy and sorrow. . I deeply regret the loss of one for whom I had the greatest admiration and respect." Queen Alexandra, in a personal message to Mrs Chamberlain, said:—"He was one of the greatest men this Empire has ever known." The burial takes place at Birmingham on Monday, after a service in the Church of the Messiah, where Mr Chamberlain taught in the Sunday school. Another service will be held in St. Margaret's, Westminster. Mr Lloyd George, in an interview, said he had always had a profound admiration for Mr Chamberlain's great powers, and a deep respect for his character. He was a man of immense personal force, quite fearless, and capable of inspiring millions with faith in his great ideals and principles, and the courage to-fight for them. He had a genuine enthusiasm for social reform. '' I have always believed in the sincerity of his'desire to improve the condition of the passes of the people. In my judgment, but for the fatal diversion of his energies caused by the Home Rule schism, he would haA'e been the greatest democratic statesman in the country." .

Lord Crewe, in distributing the prices won by the Lon<ioir Chamber of Commerce students, said that all were saddened by the passing away of one of the country's greatest men. Though other men of eommercial training and great commercial standing, including Cobden, Bright, W. 11. Smith, and Goschen, were eminent in public life, Mr Chamberlain was perhaps the first to directly apply to public life those qualities and methods which led to victory in commercial life.

GREAT AND FEARLESS.

PROMINENT IRISHMEN'S VIEWS,

Mr John Redmondj in an interview,! said that Mr Chamberlain was a groat i and fearless man. Though Ireland in the past had had bitter thoughts regarding his attiude towards Home Rule, that had been forgotten. The Nationalists had watched his long and sad illness with deep sympathy, and sorrowed deeply at his death. Mr W. O'Brien describes Mr Chamberlain as a mighty and courageous fighter, and says his views may yet form ; the foundation for a settlement of the Irish question. Mr T. Healey describes Mr Chamberlain as a man of immense ideals and ideas, and one who has left an enduring impression on the country's destinies. He detested bureaucracy, and was a fearless champion of original views. AN EMPIRE BUILDER. OVERSEAS APPRECIATION. Sir George Reid, in an interview, recalls Mr Chamberlain's tact in conducting the 1897 Conference. It was impossible to exaggerate the life and energy he infused into the relations of the Colonial Office with the Oversea ; Governments. Indeed, the service he rendered to the Empire in that rspect had furnished a standard for all his 'successors. The Hon. T. Mackenzie said:—"We lose an Empire builder of unparalleled worth. He personally familiarised himself with our wants, and he widened, deepened, and strengthened the bonds of sympathy, patriotism, commerce, and defence." PRESS REFERENCES. . PRAISE FROM ALL SOURCES. Many columns of tributes have been published to the late Mr Chamberlain from all sorts and conditions of men in public and private life, naval and military men, municipal reformers, and politicians of all parties. More generous expressions were never bestowed on any Sovereign. - '

Mr H. W. Massingham, editor of the ''Nation," is the one exception. He describes him as a great adventurer, though he admits the potency of his personality. The Paris newspapers, in long obituary notices, describe Mr Chamberlain as the strongest personality in Great Britain during the last thirty years, and the true creator of British Imperialism.

The Berlin newspapers pay generous tributes. The "Tageblatt" says that the fact that the colonies now cluster round the Motherland'as garlands in the shape of independent sister nations is primarily due to Mr Chamberlain.

AN OFFER REFUSED;

INTERMENT AT WESTMINSTER

(Received July 6, 9.30 a.m.)

LONDON, July 5

In consonance with Mr Chamberlain's desire to be buried at, Birmingham, his family has declined an offer of a "Westminster Abbey interment.