THE REAL LLOYD-GEORGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9710, 4 February 1910, Page 3

THE REAL LLOYD-GEORGE.

AS HE APPEARS TO A COLONIAL. LONDON, December 6. It was with a perfectly open mind, tinged possibly with a little colonial admiration for the hard and plucky work that he he has done during late years, that I want to hear the Chancellor of the Exchequer speak, writes the London correspondent of the "Otago Daily Times." The Queen's Hall is not exactly in Wales, but the occasion was one of the greatest Free Church gatherings that London has seen, and Mr LloydGeorge was, therefore, pretty near home. Let us grant that the enthusiasm—cheering and psalm-singing — was in the main an outburst—and a wonderful one—of that deep religious fervour which is stirring England to-day a 9 never 3inoe the Commonwealth, and think only of man. Short and thick-set, with a typically Welsh type of countenance, the Chancellor belies most of the cartoons, in which he is represented as a somewhat cadaverour and neurotic personality. His friends say that steady application to work and little opportunity fur exercise are thp causes «jf that peculiar ruddiness of complexion and tendency to flabby adiposity which now distinguish him from the majority of nis portraits, both grave.and serious. A frock suit emphasises the impression, and the longish back hair overhanging his collar exaggerates the thickness of the neck, and completes the picture of a born fighter. As indeed he is. The tout ensemble resembles only in height and in the moustache the usually published portrait of the man. The benignity of brow, by which in his portraits he so closely resembles J. M. Barrie, is not apparent. Yet there are no lines on the face. It is almost unhealthy in its pink freshness. So far, the real picture is not di.leasing. As a speaker, Lloyd-George is an interesting anachronism in jfinglish public life to-day. The voice, attenuated by an onstinate affection of the throat, is aln.ost feeble It reaches the far corners of the hall because the audience is with him in a whole-souled manner, and because any interrupter is ejecteed summarily. In face of heckling and uproar he would perforce cut a sorry figure if he were not endowed with the most caustic and resourceful gift of repartee. He does not command a flow of language comparable with that of, say, Lord Rosebery or Churchill, or even Balfour or Austen Chamberlain. He is more of a reasoner and a logician than any of them. And he clinches his arguments in a somewhat jerky and irritating way, a passage at a time, driven home with the right fist into the left palm, while he revolves regularly from side to side facing alternately the platform audience on his right and left more often than the body of the nail. Indeed, interruptions are necessary, as a rule, to fasten his attention on the mass of the audience. He is not a cultured speaker. There are soma vowel sounds which are foreign to the speech oi English University men, and he says "perfetly" for "perfectly," "extraornary" for "extraordin- i ary," and sometimes snaps out 'edoocation." But one or two of I these faux pas are found as aft'ecta- j 'iiMiH even amount the well-educated I English, who delight to a|.ptar care- . Jess. Moreover, that fs besiae the j question. LloyU-Gforge was educated j in n pariah school, and his ability, j eve'n io that age, was so promising j thai; the clergyman offered to make , him a pupil-teacher, provided, of course, he wiuld jnin the Church of England. As he jocularly remarked, he mitfht have been a curate b/ now if i:e'had accepted, the offer. But all these trivialities" are overshadowed and made almo.-t imperceptible, except to the close observer, by the overpowering earnestness of the man. Listening to-him, one realises some of the significanc of Welsh fervour and the patriotism of' the principality, just as later the eloquence of Dr Scott Lidgett and the Rev. C. Silvester Home carries us back to the Spartan convenanters worshipping their God in the fastnesses of the Scottish forest. The master of the speech is of a piece with the manner. Hearine Lloyd-George speak, it is at once apparent why Conservative statesmen, willing to concede the honesty and the strength of purpose of the manhimseif. are nettled, and even em bittereel against him. Caustic sarcasm is less apt in British controversy than direct and forcible argument.. A gip- I pancy which sometimes ends against

reverence is distasteful. But the end of all, as Lord Rosebery would say, is a species of vulgarity in which Mr Lloyd George positively exults. It is not conitnuous or even general, but it crops up here and there in ways unknown to New Zealand politics, and it 'eaves a nasty taste in the mouth. In a citadel of Nonconformity, where a dissenter could scarcely draw of breath before he was bundled out, it passed off smoothly. They do these t hirgs differently in England. They are not so mealy-mouthed as we in referring to other religions, and therefore the only security for the peace of a meeting is a generous and a genial system of "chucking out." Criticism of the House of Lords has gone far beyond the mere principle, so far that the Chancellor was applauded in this staid Free Church gathering when he remarked: "I don't know what would happen oui friends the Peers —(laugher)—those Philistines—(laughter)—who were, not all uneircumcised." —(loud cheers and laughter). The reference was, of course, to one of the principal critics of the Budget—Lord Rothschild—and the dehcacy of it was not improved by the Chancellor's first remark after an objector had been thrown out: "Well, after that fine exhibition of Jew-iit-su, I will go on."' From every interruption he scored in that quiet, ironical manner *»hich is undoubtedly at the root of much of the bitterness felt against the little champion by his opponents. In such a cause and on such an occasion one resents the attack by interference, which is so frequent a feature of hq. speech. He mentions a name, and the audience, realising at once from the tone and the inflection what is meant, hisses or boos. But in commiseration he relents. It is Sir Robert Perks this time. "He has rendered great service to Nonconformity, and ] I do not want to say a word about him, but I do wish he would «ot always speak as if the Nonconformist conscience were locked up in his city safe." Thus the censure was pleasantly mitigated. But these instances are only picked out from'a great speech to show the character of the man and the secret of his enmities. He is rising superior in a remarkable way to the narrowness and the prejudies of a life devoted in its religious and social aspects to freedom of conscience. Some how or other such crusades do produce their own little mental bondages, and Lloyd-George has wrested gamely with hi?. How gamely we way understand when we that until the last few years he had not seen England. Wales was hij world. His brilliant entrance from Wales into the arena and the front rank of British politics is sufficient evidence ' of the ability and the honesty of purpose of the man.