HON. L. S. AMERY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 16 December 1927, Page 4

HON. L. S. AMERY.

Whatever their political views, those who know something of the Bight lion. Colonel L. C. M. S. Amery, P.C., M.P., who paid a brief visit to Masterton to-day, will agree that he deserves a great deal more prominence than he seeks; even a brief record of his official achievements will show that. Ilis father was in the India Forest Service, and Mr Amery was born in India 54 years ago. lie was educated tit Harrow and Balliol, obtaining first-class honours in Moderations and Proximo Aceessit for the Craven Scholarship, followed by first-class honours in “Greats,” and the rare distinction of a Fellowship of All Souls’ College. He represented Oxford in cross-country running and hockey. For two years he was private secretary to the Right lion. L. 11. Courtney, ALP., and in 1899 joined the staff of “The Times,” and was responsible for its “History of the South African War,” at which he was its chief correspondent. In 1911 he entered Parliament as a Unionist and Tariff Reformer. From 1914-1917 he was at the war in France and the Near East, and then held the important post of Secretary of the

War Cabinet. In 1919 he became Under-Secretary for the Colonies, and in 1921 Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty. Y> hen Mr Lloyd George’s Coalition fell in 1022, almost every well known Conservative Minister except Lord Curzon retired with it, and Mr Bonar Law made Mr Amery his First Lord of the Admiralty. After a brief rest during the Labour Government of 1924, Mr Baldwin’s sweeping victory brought him back as Secretary for the Colonies. This has since been separated into two portfolios, both of which he still holds—one for the self-governing Dominions, and the other for the rest of the Empire. lie has contrived to travel into almost every part of the Empire, and also extensively in the Near East. But no Colonial Secretary has ever before visited New Zealand while in office.