AN OUTSTANDING ENGLISH DIPLOMAT

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 385, 17 March 1937, Page 5

AN OUTSTANDING ENGLISH DIPLOMAT

THE MAN WHO ENGINEERED THE TREATY OF LOCARNO. FAITHFUL EXPONENT OF FATHER’S TRADITION (Press Association—Copyright.) (Received 1 1 a.m.) LONDON, March 16. The death is announced of the Rt. Hon. Sir Austen Chamberlain, K.G., P.C., M.P., aged 74, one of Britain’s most famous contemporary statesmen Since leaving the Foreign Office in Mr. Baldwin’s last Government, the late Sir Austen Chamberlain has been one of the acknowledged "elder statesmen" of the House of Commons. A very detached statesman, he was a faithful exponent of the Chamberlain tradition linking his father Joseph, with his halfbrother Neville, now Chancellor of the Exchequer and expected to succeed Mr. Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister after the Coronation. Backed by a brilliant parliamentary and administrative record, the late Sir Austen was an outstanding Foreign Minister, and reached the summit of his career when the Treaty of Locarno was signed, in bringing about which he was chiefly instrumental. It was his aim, and the aim of the Locarno Pact, to guarantee the peace of Western Europe. Sir Austen, too, helped to discover the present Foreign Secretary, Mr. Anthony Eden, who was his private secretary for some time. In his attitude towards foreign affairs, Sir Austen was definitely pro-French, and in modern British politics was a strong Conservative. Of recent years, owing to failing health, he has lived virtually in retirement.