THE EIGHT MEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14389, 3 January 1911, Page 6

THE EIGHT MEN.

A, STUDS.TN CHARACTER. THE RECENT VETO CONFERENCE. Discussing tho recent Veto Conference "Sigma," in the London "Daily Mail," writes:— Everyone who is interested in thinga political must have wondered from time to time during the last few months how the'members of tho conference, stripped to some extent of their factitious party selves, were affecting one another, how their parliamentary posi- : tion and reputation were bearing the ' crucial test of a round-table debate, who was the strong man among them, and how far their estimates of _qne another vrero being revised or confirmed by the closer and less fcrmal ciatioh into'•which they were thrown. MR. ASQUITH AND MR. CHAM. BER.LAIN. I should be inclined to hazard the 1 guess tljat no one stood the test better or' showed to greater advantage than Mr. Asquith and Mr. Austen' Chamberlain. The Prime Minister is ono .of those men who seem to bo uniformly at their best and who can bring all their pon crs into play at a moment's, notice. People-have rather got into the way I of thinking of him as too self-contained and metallic for human nature's daily food. They admire and,fear but-do not love him. He lacks, they say, suppleness and sympathy. VMien they cheer his speeches they do not cheer . the.speaker: it is tho matter, not the | man, that moves them. ,A balanced, impeccable monotony of high and hard achievement is the' "note" of his character.. He'is not, men complain, an"ingratiating man; his drawbridge is never down; it is impossible to imagine him'committing .an indiscretion; his | amiable and appealing weaknesses, if he has*any, are never visible; his enthusiasms Tare all intellectual, and his way of looking at life and politics is not without its, alloy of Oxford "superiority" and arrogance. But tho common notion of politicians is rarely the correct one.--In tne House and among his own follower? it is perhaps tine enough that tho factoi of Mr Asquith's personality doe* not always work out to an easy "equation and that ceople miss in the man the colour, the mellowress, the fusing to'uch th n t they nrts in lis speeches But the Gutifeienoe, I do not doubt surprised that moro genial and' considerate side of him which he hides from the outer world—tho sido that makes him a delightful host in private 1 te full of eacer w nrmth for the comfort and pleasure- of h s guests. If auy of his fellow-members cherished the legend that Mr. Asciuith is a cold man or an unstable one I imagine their intercourse- with him during the pist lew months has undeceived them/' His close, oideih, and supremely competent nnnd, alwa\s "on the spot," always direct pertnent, -sure of itself, and fallacy-proof must have made hini'tho real as well as the official.head of the Conference. MR. BALFOUR AWD.. MR.' LLOYD GEORGE.

Ono would have given a good deal to have witnessed the battle oi wits between him and Mi Balrour, the solid Yoikshireman against tho Scotsman's quicker play of mind, the mn u with the firm grasp and tho trenchant blado against the master of sail es and stratagems The Leader of the Opposition has an intellect at once more agile, of wider i.inge, uioie critical and destructive, and of a finer texture than the Prime Minster's The ono is a. lawyer, a min of affairs, w.th- an ad hoc, positive, intensely practical mind tho other is a philosopher, a man of diversified culture, whefoe statesmanship is the statesmanship of ideas rather tbah of deeds. Tho one is. a Radical bv 'nstmct and upbringing, the other is an aristocrat m every fibre of his being; : And both are strong meii. ;• When he has his back to the' wall Mi- Balfour is possibly the stronger of the two, a rock, indeed, of immovable granite One conceives him m tho conference room infinitely fertile in suggestion and comment, exquisitely chivalious in "manner, elevating the wholo discussion, guiding Ins tei.ni with the deftest of hands, and beyond a: certain point quite adamant no What, I wonder, was the. figure cut by Mr Lloyd George* It was not, one may be sure, the figure he cut at Limehbuse. • The Lloyd George of the conference was not the brilliant, biting; reckless swashbuckler of the Eist End or the fiery zealot of the Welsh hills, but the Lloyd George who settfod the railway dispute, the frank, unprejudiced, winning man, with the ready eye for the essential point, tho.quick and radiant smile, and the open, cheery

temperament, holding himself well in hand, rather bored by. the severity of constitutional discussion, working for peace 'long as' a hope of. peace remained, but. not'by any means avers? from settling the issuejjy war- • LORD CREWE, LORD CAWDOR, LORD LANSDOWNE AND MR '.";•■ . BIRRELL. Lord Crewe find Lord Cawdor were the only, members of the conference whose'inclusion in it \\"as not an obviousconsequence of there being a conference at 'all. Lord Cawdor I tio not know,, and.the part he is likely to have played in the discussions is, therefore, beyond my powers of divination. But I gather from his public record an impression of a man very vigorous, levelheaded, but- also rather stiff and angular in his Toryism, an awkward opponent for anyone to tackle. It is easy on-the other hand to picture Lord Crewe as smooth, affable, lubricating ns ever, throwing iu a word or two of quiet common-sense, but for the most part remaining deprecatingly in the background. And it is easy, too, to imagine Mr. Birrell, the cynical, goodhumoured, hot gospeller of Radical politics, vivid, pungent, and acute in all his observations and not often allowing himself the luxury of forgetting the strict tactical interests of his party._ Lorfi Lansdowne, again, with his shrewd and lucid mind, his wide experience of men and affairs, and his unruffled temper, must have been in the conference very much as he is in the House of Lords. But I cannot away with the feeling that, next to Mr Balfour, the Unionist case fell mainly into the hands of Mr. Chamberlain, who has never pretended to any of his father's Radicalism, who is formed on the "no surrender" model, and whose steady, business-like intellect, not in the least original or exciting, but extremely pertinent and tenacious, must have made'him an invaluable advocate —a better advocate, perhaps, than negotiator. It was his fight against the Budget that really made him a first-class Parliamentarian, "but I should not be surprised if lus rolleagues in the conference agreed 'that they had never until now taken his full measure, and that in the. encounters of the twenty-one sessions he has been decidedly one of the heavy-weights.