BOOKS OF THE DAY Arthur Henderson (J. L. Hammond)

• • 474

The Moral Basis of Politics (Vyvyan Adams, M-.P.)

• • 475 Can Capitalism Last ? (Honor Croome) • • 475 The Economy of Britain (Prof. M. M. Postan) • •

-476

Maria Theresa (Christopher Hobhouse).. • •

476

Helen Keller's Journal (C. E. Vulliamy) - •

478

Marx on America (D. W. Brogan) .. .. 480 A Farmer in Eire (Derek Verschoyle) , 48o The . Art of the Future (Anthony Blunt) 480 Trial of a Judge (Nevill Coghill) .. 482 Inquest on Liberty (Richard Freund) .. 484 The Coming of a Kingdom (H. G. Wood) 484 Fiction (Forrest Reid) 486 Current Literature .. 488

ARTHUR HENDERSON

By J. L. HAMMOND

IT would be difficult to think of anybody as well fitted as Mrs. Hamilton for the task of writing Henderson's biography. She combines the novelist's observant interest in character with great political experience. She made her mark in the House of Commons when she gave her party the help of an alert and discerning mind trained in economics and fortified by her experience as a member of an important Royal Com- mission on Trade. For three years she was a member of the British delegation to the Assembly of the League: Thus she has had remarkable opportunities of judging Henderson's capacity as a leader, and, what is not less important, his character as a colleague. It is not surprising then that her book is not merely an illuminating interpretation of a man but also an indis- pensable study of the politics of his age."

During the discussions of the question of the Stockholm Conference, on which Mrs. Hamilton's careful account supple; ments, and in some important respects corrects, Mr. Lloyd George's, a Conservative member observed that to send Labour Members to an international conference was about as sensible as to ask an absolutely untrained man to fly an aeroplane. Most people of the class to which the speaker belonged, saw nothing extravagant in that contemptuous comment. If any member of that class had been told that of all the politicians who served England in international affairs in the critical years that followed the War the most successful would be a man who was an errand boy at 9, who left school at 12, who had not climbed like Smiles' heroes to a fortune in industry but had remained in the rank and file, who had neither Mr. Lloyd George's quick and sparkling mind nor MacDonald's literary culture but was a drab, plain man with nothing about him to strike the eye or fancy, he would have taken leave of his senses. Mrs. Hamilton has to explain this phenomenon and she does it with such success that when she has built up Henderson's character, as formed and tested in the difficult relationships of politics, his power, dignity and large-minded wisdom at Geneva cause no surprise at all.

To understand Henderson at Geneva and the universal respect and confidence that he won, it is necessary to watch his conduct inside the Labour Party. Mrs. Hamilton has a brilliant study of the differences between him and MacDonald, giving to each their distinguishing gifts. She calls MacDonald in a happy phrase an impatient pessimist and Henderson a patient optimist. The great service that Henderson did to the Labour Party was not his hard plodding work at organisation (important though it was) but his skill in keeping men together. The War was a great test.. The Labour Party was divided and passion ran high. Mrs. Hamilton makes it clear that Henderson more than anybody else averted disruption, and made it possible for MacDonald to return later as Leader. A weaker man would have shrunk from associating his career and prestige with the fortunes of a man so widely distrusted as MacDonald was at that time, but Henderson, though a convinced supporter of the War, was not afraid, as Mr. Lloyd George complained, of going to Paris " arm in arm " with this unpopular pacifist. As a Minister he did the nation a great service by the use he made of his influence both on working-class opinion and on Government policy. After his resignation he did great service in using his influence to build up a good Labour Party at home with a generous and well-considered policy, domestic and foreign, and to recreate and deepen an international spirit among all the Left parties of the Continent. In the first task he

Arthur Henderson. By Mary Agnes Hamilton. (Heinemann. t5s.) brought together MacDonald and Webb, in spite of their mutual distrust and coldness, and he enlisted Cole, Tawney and other brilliant and constructive minds. In the second he laid the foundations of a good League of Nations temper under most difficult conditions. It is significant of those difficulties that the Havelock Wilson's seamen refused to carry him to Boulogne for a Socialist Conference in 1917 and that his great reconciling work as Foreign Secretary was largely spoilt by the disastrous explosion at the Hague of Snowden's strong insular passions.

To these tasks Henderson brought a quality that explains his success. Politics are a world of fierce competition; com- petition for place, for prestige, for attention. In no world does the look of failure cause greater distress. Henderson's simplicity of life (neither he nor his wife had any taste for social display) reflected the simplicity of his character. He gave to the Labour movement and to the large causes that seemed to him to depend on its success the disinterested loyalty that he gave to his chapel as a local preacher. He was the least self-centred of politicians. From his experience in this task he acquired judgement, the habit of decision, and an intuitive wisdom that served him better than brilliant gifts would have served him if they had been combined with a less generous nature.

Almost his first act as Foreign Secretary showed his quality. He decided that for nearly five years Lord Lloyd as High Com- missioner in Egypt had been checking and defeating Austen Chamberlain's plans. He saw at once what must be done and he did it. He put the facts before Lord Lloyd in such a' way that Lord Lloyd resigned. He was loudly abused for victimising a great public servant, but no abuse• would deter him from putting an end to a false and mischievous relationship. That seems today, when all- the passions it excited are spent; an easy thing to do. Yet the direct and manly action taken by Henderson, a Minister in a minority Government disliked and distrusted by the ruling class, was beyond the strength of Disraeli's Government, a Government strong in the House of Commons with the ruling classes almost solid behind it. That Government flinched- from- recalling Bartle Frere ; on the other hand it would not trust him. It therefore decided on the compromise between recall and confidence and publicly censured this man of genius, with the disastrous consequences

that might have been expected. . - -

Henderson was elected President of the Disarmiutent Con- ference at Geneva when he was Foreign Secretary, but for most of the time that he held that office he was not even a Member of Parliament. Thus the great reputation he won in this last chapter of his life was peculiarly his own ; he had not even the support of his Government behind him, and he was belittled by its Press. That he was the great reconciling force, the hope of all who put the peace of the world first in their minds, was proved by a hundred incidents at the Conference and an un- precedented tribute after his death from the Geneva Secretariat signed by 300 officials of all nations. That he knew when a crisis demanded temper rather than patience he showed when he crushed Barthou's wrecking manoeuvre to the delight and relief of the whole Conference. Unhappily the National Government which saved England from financial confusion increased the political confusion of Europe by the successive mistakes of Ministers intellectually far superior to Henderson. Struggling to the last with his task, with sinking strength and sinking hope, he watched Europe move unsteadily but surely

to disaster. _