RT. HON. L. S. AMERY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20005, 23 November 1927, Page 13

RT. HON. L. S. AMERY

SECRETARY FOR THE DOMINIONS VISITS WANGANUI ON FRIDAY The Right Honourable Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery is the first Secretary of State for the Dominions and Colonies who has visited Australia, and indeed, the only British statesman who has come to this country while holding Cabinet rank. The fact that Mr. Amery is making a tour of the Dominions with Whose affairs he, as Secretary of State, is specially concerned, is evidence that he is such an earnest, conscientious statesman, and such an ardent Imperialist, that he desires to obtain first-hand knowledge of conditions in the Dominions, and of the future possibilities of these lands.

Mr. Amery, who will reach his 54th birthday next month, is the son of the late Charles F. Amery, who was an able officer in the Forest Department of India. He was born at Gorakhpur, the head-quarters of the most north-easterly district of the United Province of India. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford, and after Levelling in the Near East he joined the editorial staff of the London Times. He went to South Africa on behalf of the Times during the Boer war, and subsequently edited the Times’ History of the South African War, which was published in seven volumes. He has previously visited Australia, and indeed all of the Dominions. Entrance to Parliament Mr. Amery has always been an ardent tariff reformer, and has spoken and written a great deal in favour of tariff reform and Imperial preference. It was as a Unionist and tariff reformer that he stood as a Parliamentary candidate for Wolverhampton Bast twentyone years ago, when he was 33 years of age, but he was defeated by the “dear-food” cry raised by the opponents of Imperial preference and tariff reform. Undaunted, Mr. Amery stood for the same scat in 1908, but was agiftn defeated. Two years later he stood again, but suffered a third defeat. At the next general election, eleven months later, which was brought about by the rejection by the House of Lords of Mr Lloyd George’s budget, which became known as the People’s Budget, Mr. Amery stood for the London constituency of Bow and Bromley, but was again defeated. Success came next year, when he stood for Birmingham South. He represented that constituency in the House of Commons until 1918, when he was returned for the Sparkbrook division of Birmingham. Cabinet Rank. During the war he served on the General Staff at the War Office, and subsequently on the army head-quarters staff at Salonika. In 1917 he was appointed assistant secretary to the Imperial War Cabinet, and it used to be said that he and Sir Maurice Hankey, the secretary to the Cabinet, knew more official war secrets than any other two men in England. Mr. Amery’s first Ministerial appointment was that of Under-Secretary in the Colonial Office in 1919, and in 1921 he was transferred to a similar post in the Admiralty. When Mr. Lloyd George’s Coalition Government was overthrown in 1922, as the result of withdrawal of Conservative support, and the late Mr. Bonar Law became Prime Minister, Mr. Amery was elevated to Cabinet rank as First Lord of the Admiralty. In that capacity he was responsible for bringing before the House of Commons the proposal to build a naval base at Singapore, which is of so much importance to the Empire, and

to Australia and New Zealand in particular. When Mr. Bonar Law died in 1923, and Mr. Stanley Baldwin succeeded him as Prime Minister, Mr. Amery remained at the Admiralty. Industries and Tariffs. It is said that Mr. Amery was foremost amongst those younger Ministers who induced Mr. Baldwin to dissolve Parliament in November, 1923, and appeal to the country for a mandate to bring in fiscal duties to protect home industries from the unfair competition of European countries, which, as *he result of the great depreciation of their currencies, were flooding the English market with cheap commodities of all kinds. At that time the Conservative Government had been only a year in office, and in the ordinary course of events it could have stayed in office for another three or four years, as it had a substantial majority of 80 members in the House of Commons, The cautious political advisers of the party were opposed to an appeal to the country, but as British industries were suffering severely from foreign competition in the home market as well as abroad, and as hundreds of thousands of British workers were unemployed owing to this unfair competition, Mr. Baldwin thought the time was opportune for an appeal to the electors for a mandate to impose protective duties. But once more the “dear-food” cry raised by the Liberal and Labour Parties was successful at the polls; the Censervative majority was swept away, and Mr. Baldwin’s Government made way for Great Britain’s first Labour Government under Mr. Ramsay McDonald, which was kept in office for ten montlis by the support of Liberal members. When the Labour Government went to the country in October, 1924, the Conservatives were returned with the largest majority in England’s Parliamentary history, and Mr. Baldwin formed his second Government. In this Administration, Mr. Amery took charge of the Colonial Office, which he, as an ardent Imperialist, regards as the Cabinet post which offers most opportunity for furthering the interests of the Empire. Personal Traits. Mr. Amory is a man of strong physique,/ but somewhat below normal height. He is often referred to by his friends in the House of Commons sa “The Pocket Hercules.” He is a good speaker, but does not claim the possession of oratorical gifts. He has always been very much in earnest in everything he undertakes, and this characteristic has been displayed to the fullest extent in the discharge of his important Ministerial post; he is regarded as one of the most energetic workers in the Cabinet. He is a man of strong convictions and great driving power, and is destined to play a prominent part in the development of the Empire.