THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 17, 1937.
CREATOR OF LOCARNO PACTS
Sir Austen Chamberlain's Political Career
Prominent Figure In
British National Life
The writer was in the House of Commons on the occasion when, after Austen Chamberlain had been returned at a by-election in 1892 for East Wor- cestershire, he made his maiden speech.
matically, and proceeded to appeal alterations in her eastern borders to the House to visualise the post-as they were fixed after the war. War conditions on the Continent emity, suspicion and the rest,
so was to win her confidence and
LOCARNO. NEGOTIATIONS
ponents of his plan. The. Locarno conference then assembled and one of
which required exceptional mea- The British Foreign Secretary sures if ruffled nerves were to be
entered into negotiations with smoothed or suspicions, dispelled. Aristide Briand and Dr. Gustav Members were left to conjure up & Stresemann, foreign ministers re- picture of the Foreign Secretary spectively of France and Germany. taking the hands of France affec- In them he found sympathetic pro- tionately in his own, because to do thus to lay the foundation of a real adopted the treaties. In peace - not because enchantment them Germany, France and had blotted out remembrance of his Belgium agreed never to wage war own country or an equal sense of At its close, Mr. Gladstone rose to congratulate the newcomer friendship towards others.
upon each other, Great Britain and Italy signing as guarantors of on his brilliant oration, and in the course of his welcome to the new
the treaty. Others involving Ger- M.P. remarked of this maiden effort that "it was a speech that, for
many, Poland and Czechoslovakia its eloquence and ability, must have been dear to a father's heart." At this Mr. Joseph Chamberlain started, and his monocle, dropped Of all the statesmen who devot-were signed to guarantee peace on
the eastern border. as he rose a little way from his seat and gave a grateful little bowed themselves to European peace to the "G.O.M.” It was told me that tears came to his eyes. It after the World War, Sir» Austen
In outlining his plans, Mr. may have been so. It was a fine incident, as the antagonism be evolved the plan regarded as pro election of Germany to membership Chamberlain also provided for the tween the two men over the Home Rule question was, at the time,viding the greatest degree of se a bitter reality.
curity and which eventually brought into being the Locarno.
his
· LOCARNO CREATOR
of the League of Nations.
1925.
LORD CURZON'S JUDGMENT
For his achievement in promot- ing the Locarno conference he was The late Sir Austen Chamberlain, and received a unanimous vote. Yet treaties.
honoured by His Majesty with M.P., one time Lord Privy Seal and it cannot be doubted that merit came His plan was a sequel to a Leader of the House of Commons, into its own. The event, however, security effort by the Assembly of
knighthood in the Order of the Garter and, with Charles G. Dawes, was born in 1863. He was educat-showed that Chamberlain had not the League of Nations, which be
vice-president of the United States, ed at Rugby and Trinity College, captured his Party. It had always came known as the Geneva proto-shared the Nobel Peace Prize for Cambridge. At first, he represent-been felt that his career was rather col. This was discarded when it ed East Worcestershire, but on the the outcome of inheritance was rejected by Great Britain on death of his father in 1914 he was than his own unhampered choice, the ground that, because of the ex- elected for his father's seat in West and probably this opinion was tent of the British Empire, it would
And so he pursued his course Birmingham. He filled the positions a handicap to him in many ways. be unable to fulfill the guarantees of Civil Lord to the Admiralty, Fin-Without it he might have been a of security imposed upon it by the unerringly, misunderstood perhaps,
He might not have protocol.
yet on all but the rarest occasions. ancial Secretary to the Treasury, greater man.
On March 24, 1925, Mr. Cham-too sensitive to explain himself to and Postmaster-General, and, from climbed so high or so early, and
more berlain informed the British those who would have beer the 1903 to 1905, was Chancellor of the yet he might have been
that Great Britain first to give him credit and sup- Exchequer, an office he held again greatly respected, and would have Parliament
In many-respects, Sir in 1919. He was Secretary for In- been elected Leader when the right would have nothing further to do port. dia in the Coalition Government, time came. With Mr. Balfour out with the wreckage of the Geneva Austen's career may be summed up of the way his rivals were not protocol. Instead, it would seek in a judgment passed upon the late 1915-1917, and Secretary of State
to build permanent peace for Lord Curzon he missed the ult for Foreign Affairs in the Baldwin
Europe on another foundation-a mate things. Cabinets. He received the Garter
mutual pact between Germany and in 1925, for his services in bringing
her former enemies-which would about the Locarno Treaty.
"ECHO OF FATHER" BURDEN
formidable.
ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY
New York, To-day. The death occurred yesterday of What did he lack? Perhaps the guarantee the frontier of Western mind of a leader. He always im-Europe against change and in Rear Admiral Richmond Pearson pressed one as being a first-rate which Germany would renounce all Hobson, a naval hero of the Span- Civil Servant with a seat in the idea of ever going to bring about (ish-American War-Reuter
It is quite possible that the poli-House, stepping into important tical development of Sir Austen
positions as a sort of right, doing Chamberlain would have proceeded the work well, if without distine on rather different lines had he not,
tion, as occasion or expediency for a long time, been regarded as might require. Someone has said the likeness and echo of his father. that the qualities of mind that In many important respects they make a good bureaucrat disqualify were not alike The father was their owner for creative politics.” forceful, dynamic, the son was ever Sir Austen Chamberlain was an ready to give place to others and efficient administrator and a very was more or less static. It might effective speaker, especially when be said that almost as soon as he he was really roused. It was dur was born he found his career wait-ing the ten years that his Party ing for him, and he accepted it was in Opposition that he became By the time he had been a year at a potent influence in the House, Cambridge his demeanour was con- and one of the best all-round Par- sistent with the cares of office liamentarians of his time. Even towards his fellow under- graduates he adopted a solemnity of manner and weighed his words so seriously that he seemed already to be considering the verdict of pos- terity, al
In recent years he had few rivals in debate and his moral weight was second to none.
SCRUPULOUSLY FAIR
He was always scrupulously fair
It was in 1903 that the first real and unfailingly courteous to all. step in his political career took He had no intimate among his col- place. He was appointed Chancellor leagues, but was liked by all of of the Exchequer.
LOSES LEADERSHIP
them. Latterly, an austere aloof- ness seemed to encompass him. va
After the War, he devoted him- self wholeheartedly to the cause of European peace. In the he earned a reputation, amongst those who were dispos- ed
learning to
ronted
In 1912, Mr. Balfour's sway asi Party Leader had declined and it seemed possible that Chamberlain might be elected as Leader, but Wal- ter Long disputed the throne, and love Fr Bonar Law secured it. The sup porters of Walter Long said that prevent Chamberlain
they would
se
ring a unanimous deci- whereupon Cham rlain's for one
clared they wo
Lang
Boner
the
was invited as compromiselloves
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