BRITISH PERSONALITIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 138, 13 June 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

BRITISH PERSONALITIES

THE EARL OF DERBY (By T.C.L.) Lord Derby is one of the most influential figures in the public and social life of Great Britain. He is an institution that is firmly entrenched in the life of the country. If for no other reason than that in 1924 his horse Sansovino won the Derby, instituted by an ancestor in the 17th century, ho is persona grata with democrat and aristocrat alike. But he is much more than a successful sporting man. Like sc many of the nobility in England, he has devoted the greater part of his life to the service of the people, and rendered distinguished service to the State in several important capacities. Indeed he lives for his country, in accordance with the best, traditions of the aristocracy. The Stanleys are a Lancashire family, and what the Earl of Derby says to-day Lancashire accepts to-morrow. The Lancashire people are very proud of the Stanleys and particularly of the present Earl, who has done so much for them and the country. He is the first man in Liverpool, and much of that city’s progress and enterprise, and its strong humanitarian activities, are due to his initiative and public spirit. So when the Imperial Pressmen visited the Great Gateway of the West it was only fitting that Lord Derby should figure prominently in the festivities attending the reception. He is a cheery, breezy kind of man with a heart as big as his frame, which is of no mean proportions, with a radiant nature that instantly attracts and interests. If he were not at the head of the Stanley family such a pleasing, forceful personality must have made its mark on the life of the country. He welcomed the Press delegates in a speech that was as friendly as it was eloquent. “You know,” he said, “the relationship between ourselves, our colonies, our Dominions and the Dependencies is mainly a sentimental one. It can broadly be stated as one King and one flag common to all. You cannot put the sentiment and traditions of hundreds of years into letterpress. Let us avoid anything that will disturb the harmony of hundreds of years which has made our nation what it is by at tempting to put down too closely and in too rigid and unclastic a fashion the relationship which binds us together.” He is, of course, a pillar of the House of Lords—one of his ancestors was Prime Minister before Disraeli —and so he knows the waysand the limitations of politicians. “I have a feeling,” he said, “when matters of economic importance to the Empire are being discussed that politicians have one eye on the welfare or the country and the other on the effect anything they do may have on the voters. If we could only got business men to deal with them on business lines, trying to build up something on which a greater build 1 ing in future can be erected, then 1 believe the Empire Premiers’ conferences will become of inestimable value, not only to this generation but to generations of the future.” Lord Derby was formerly a staunch Free Trader, and when Air. Stanley Baldwin decided in favour of Protection some years ago, he was strongly opposed to the change in policy, and is said to have stood up valiantly in Cabinet against Amery, the Chamberlains, and Cunliffe-Lister, but without avail. It is significant of the great change that has recently come over England that one so conservative and so convinced a Free Trader as Lord Derby should have weakened in his fiscal beliefs and to-day is on the. side of Baldwin and his associates in adyocaGng a measure of protection. Lancashire has always supported Free Trade. Lancashire and Yorkshire indeed arc the strongholds of Cobdenisni. Even its working population was formerly strongly Conservative. Disraeli discovered this, and astutely turned it to account. But the visitor to these counties to-day notices a considerable change m opinion. Conditions ar<- so bad in the basic cotton and woollen industries, unemployment is so great, and misery so genial that no change in fiscal policy could possibly make conditions worse than they are, and consequently the people there are ready to support the protection policy advocated by the Cor..'Crvaiive Party in the hope that indus try will be stimulated and employment promoted. Lord Derby sees that conditions have rapidly changed since the war, and that if it is to survive as an industrial nation Britain must also change its fiscal attitude. Foreign markets are being closed to British goods; taxation has increased until it is crushing the life out of industry; over a fourth of the workers are being supported by the other three-fourths and out. of the capital resources of the country; the exchanges of the world are becoming clogged by the selfish policies of the various countries, particularly of the United States, and the belief is rapidly gaining ground that Britain must put her self in a position to bargain with these countries. Families like the Stanleys have given strength to the nation during the, past few hundreds of years, but it would seem that they are doomed to extinction in the not distant future. As a well-known publicist said: “Something like a silent revolution is going on in our midst. We are witnessing the gradual disappearance of the old landowning class.” Dukes and earls and lords are, in fact, selling their inherited property bit by bit. Since the war rates and taxes have increased enormously. We were told in Scotland by the son of the earl who owned the estate that his rent roll was £BO.OOO a year, whilst the rates and taxes amounted to no less than £120.000, He explained that they expected some relief under the De rating Act. We asked how long they could carry on under such a handicap. “As long as a dog can live on its tail,” he replied, significantly. An other Duke has an enormous rent roll, but by the time the local authorities and the Government, have finished with | his income he has only Is fid in the £ i left! i Only recently Lord Derby sold his 1 property in Bury, Radcliffe, Whj’eford. : Manchester si nd Salford, part of which had belonged to the Stanleys since the < fifteenth, century, whilst, he has also’ I sold important land interests in Liver-

pool to the municipality. This action is forced on him in order Qi provide, not only for the heavy rates and taxes, but also for death duties, which often amount to half the value of an estate. The Socialist, will not regret this tendency; rather will he rejoice, over it. but even the colonial, brought up under

democratic conditions, can hardly helj feeling that England, beautiful Eng land, is the loser by the disappearance of the landed aristocracy and the level ling of the great families that, havi played such an important and honourci part in the life of the nation and th* development of the Empire.