Sir Robert Hudson
THE friends of the late Sir Robert Hudson will be grateful to Mr. J. A. Spender for this excellent biography. Hudson was not an easy subject for he touched life at many points and he had more than one mood and more than • one method. A good deal depended upon whether those who came in contact with him could rally to his quickness of wit, or could converse adequately upon his literary heroes—Johnson and Stevenson were keys to his heart—or, were they politicians, could convince hin, that they wanted to serve their Party and not themselves, "Although be was a political organizer he was the soul of honesty," might serve as Hudson's epitaph.
In the end when the Liberal Party had fallen upon days of dissension and decay Hudson gave up all his offices in the Party and quietly faded away instead of departing in the blaze of glory which was the due of the most accomplished and successful organizer the Liberals had ever had. He did this for conscience' sake. Ile could not tolerate the idea of Mr. Lloyd George's Party Fund. Ile started the "Million Fund " to make the Party, as he hoped, once more self-respecting in
its independence, but by that time the Party was too weak. He failed, but he failed honourably through no fault of his own. Even those friends of his who remember how quickly
he could warm to a responsive wit in a person whom he had only just met will admit that nobody could count upon a continuance of that warmth if Hudson found the least reason later to think that his man did not run straight.
- Although we live in an evil world the crooked are, after all, a minority, and for those who did not deserve the loss of Hudson's confidence there was always friendliness, helpfulness, and an unforgettable radiance. In all his friendliness there had to be a core or centre of friendship. This David wits lost without his Jonathan. First of all Tom Ellis. who was marked down by many as a future Prime Minister, but who died early, was the Jonathan. Later his -place was taken by Charles Catty. There was always one with whom Hudson could enjoy the frankness of an unburdening correspondence, affectionate and frolicsome.
Those who were often in Hudson's company will remember all their lives the light which Hashed frin his eyes as he savoured some humorous situation or made the conversation yital with some extraordinarily apposite drollery. Yet in spite of his indisputable sincerity Hudson was capable of saying things which might be taken by a stranger for levity or cynicism. These things were no part of his essential make- up. They were the weapons of a man who had to keep many fools in their places and to apply a shrewd judgment to difficult situations almost every day of his organizing life. Mr. Spender, knowing well that this aspect of Hudson's manner was merely accidental, says nothing of it, but he has allowed that sagacious judge, Mr. E. V. Lucas, to mention it. Of course, Hudson was shrewd ; if he had not been so he could not possibly have held the difficult balance between the National Liberal Federation and the Liberal Central Associa- tion when he was secretary of both. To give him that dual office was to ask him to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, for the Central Office was an official body, and the Liberal Federation prized nothing more than its provincial independence and its right to speak its mind about the manage- ment of the Party. Hudson held the two together, strength- ened both and won the respect of both. There has seldom been such a feat.
In the great days of the Liberal Party—for instance in that triumphal year I906—Hudson might have used his immense personal power to become a kind of mystery man or a Power behind the Throne." He did nothing of the sort. He laboured for his team, not for himself. He disliked seeing his name in the newspapers.
Something must now be said about Hudson's work as Chair- man during the War of the Joint Finance Committee of the Red Cross and the Order of St. John. He had to administer the expenditure of 20 million sterling. What an undertaking to spend money promptly and widely, as the circumstances required, and yet to spend it wisely! If he had done nothing else in his life he would be most honourably remembered for this.
The growing satisfaction with which we read Mr. Spender's book was due to his simple and modest loyalty to his task. Mr. Spender is, of course, skilful even when he is simple. In his writing there is no straining after effect ; no desperate search for those dramatic contrasts which please at the expense of truth.
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