SOME PEN PICTURES

Waikato Independent, Volume XXIII, Issue 3074, 23 June 1923, Page 7

SOME PEN PICTURES

SIR S. HOCKING'S GALLERY Vivid little portraits of well-known public men arc sketched by Mi Silas K. Hocking, the popular novelist, in •'My Book of Memories." Mr Hocking has met all the most prominent people of the last fifty years or so, and writes of them will) insight. Here are a few of his. thumbnail sketches: — Sir Henry Campbell-Ban nerinnn. —I never met a man more free from cant and side and humbug. Mr Asqniili.—History will assuredly place him in the line of great statesmen. He lias been unflinchingly loyal to those great principles which have been the guiding slar of his live. Earl of Balfour.—Oim of England's great men who should have remained plain "Mr." Mr Walter Jiuneiman. —A far abler man than many people credit him with being. His youthful appearance has made against him. Mr Winston Churchill. Had .he adopted literature as a profession he would have won great distinction. I admire his genius, his daring, his versatility, and yet I am often afraid for him. When a big nmn makes mistakes they are generally big mistakes. Mr John Simon. —Has most of the qualities that go to the making of a great statesman. With a little 7nore fire and passion he would make a great leader. Mr A. G. Gardiner. —His best, work will live as literature. What I admire most in him is his honesty; next to that his fearlessness. Mr John Burns. —Like a river that has burst its banks and lost itself in the desert sands. For many years now his bfe apparently has been running to waste. Mr A. S. M. Hutchinson.—Modest and retiring. Gives one the impression of having not quite got over the surprise of finding himself famous. The Kaiser impressed me as being a stubborn man but not a great man, an ambitious man but not a. great-souled man. Away from his environment he would be ordinary, almost commonplace. Dr J. H. Jowett.—A charming personality, whom to know is to love. Dr Scott Lidgett.—ls on more committees, I should think, than any other man in London. Dr John Clifford.—Bold as a bon and yet tender as a. woman. A born fighter, with the heart of a, child.