PREMIERS WHO WROTE FOR THE PRESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19366, 24 July 1925, Page 3

PREMIERS WHO WROTE FOR THE PRESS

(By C. E. Bechhofer Roberts, in the Daily Express). The exaggerated pother about Lord Birkenhead’s contribution to the Press reveals a large measure of historical ignorance in his assailants. One would think, from their statements, that no member of any British Cabinet had ever relieved his official labours with the solace of literature. The-very opposite is the case. Even the exemplary Gladstone worked on his Homeric studies when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he wrote, in one of his last letters before resigning office, “I sent off with some final touches my version of the. ‘Shield’ and the preface.” He also contributed an Italian translation of an English hymn to the Nineteenth Century when ho was in office. It is notorious that Disraeli, his political rival, introduced into a novel many of the scenes :n which he had taken part as Premier, but there is no certain evidence that he did more than make notes until he was again in opposition.

The tradition goes back much further. Bolingbroke, when Secretary of State fur the Northern Department, founded a periodical, the Examiner, and wrote in it of current political problems. He wrote also in other papers of his time. This example was followed by Canning, who edited a paper, and even induced his Prime Minister, the younger Pitt, to write political articles for it.

Lord Chesterfield, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, wrote verses which circulated in Dublin, and Lord (then Mr.) Balfour signalised his appointment as Secretary for Scotland and a member the Cabinet in ISS7 with an article on* Handel, the composer, in the Edinburgh Review. It is probable that this was written before he know definitely that he would receive high politic-af office, but he published his pamphlet on Free Trade when he was Primo Minister, and split his party by so doing. BONAR LAW’S RULE. It is generally known that the late Lord Curzon worked for many years on his recently published book on the Indian Viceroys; during this time ho was himself ” a Viceroy, Foreign Minister, and Lord President of the 1 Council. A former Secretary for India, Lori Morley, wrote for the Press when he was in office. Mr. Churchill wrote many articles when ho was a member of the Coalition Cabinet. Mr. Snowden made considerable trouble for himself by an article in an American journal, when he was preparing his solitary Budget. Both the Bonar Law and MacDonald Cabinets laid down a. rule that no Minister must write on current political 1 topics, a precedent from which, by the I way, no member of the present Cabinet has ever deviated. Mr. Austen Chamberlain’s reminiscences of his youth, published in a magazine this year, following Mr. Churchill’s, are clearly no exception to this practice. The point has been raised that Lord Birkenhead is paid for the articles he writes and dictates. This, too, is in line with precedent, for I know no recorded instance of a Ministerial contributor to any journal or any publisher’s list refusing to accept payment for his work. One might as well expect a Ministerial racehorse-owner to refuse to accept the stakes his horses win. I ’nave not mentioned the numoron*’ cases of Ministers who have published articles and books within a few weeks or months of their leaving office. It is a fair assumption that they prepared those 'while in office. It will show a decline in British public life when Ministers relinquish the great tradition of letters for the less excellent pastimes of some of their forebears.