OCCASIONAL BIOGRAPHIES : IX. SIR SAMUEL HOARE
SIR SAMUEL HOARE'S speech to the League last week has been admired more generally throughout the world than almost any speech by a British statesman, certainly since the War. Yet Sir Samuel Hoare was unknown to the world a few years ago and even to many of his own people he is still little more than a name. Was it the occasion only that made the speech so famous and won the gratitude of a bewildered world fora lead from England, or was there in the speech the higher quality of statesmanship that will win fame and a place in history for the man himself ?
Four years ago no one even suspected the spark of genius in Sir Samuel Hoare. In the last Conservative Government he was Air Minister and made speeches on the Air Estimates that had a certain distinction of phrasing-and a sense of the picturesque. But these are qualities that a Minister can have on loan from someone on his staff with a sense of literary style. Other than his set speeches gave no idea of any force of character, and though he was obviously an abler man than any other London Conservative member of the House of Commons and it was not difficult, to shine in what is after all poor company, one saw no indication of any power to think for himself or to take a line of action of his own.him personally Those indeed who knew Spoke of a man that had never appeared in his speeches, of a fine balance of judgement, of independence, and of an imaginative gift of seeing all round a question and projecting his mind into different dimensions of polities than those of party. But certain mannerisms of speech rather conveyed weakness. His delivery was somewhat mincing, and his style pursed with such primness. as to convey the impression almost of old- maidishness. The rank and file of his party thought he lacked vigour ; the other side remembered that he had signed the letter of protest from 'Westminster members when it looked as though Lloyd George might break with the dismal conventions of war thought and take a line as distinctively British as, say, Castlereagh's at the Vienna Congress.
The first public indication that he had been misjudged was given during the crisis of 1931 that led to the formation of the National Government. Sir Samuel was one of the triumvirate that made that Government Possible,. for without Conservative support the whole idea was not praCtical politics. Remember that he was supposed to be the orthodox party man and had been one of the early rebels against the Lloyd George Coalition. That the initiative came from him is not to be supposed ; both Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Baldwin had shown their disgust with the dog-fight of party polities and had sighed for saner and quieter political combinations. But Mr. Baldwin was regarded by many then as half a Socialist, and at any rate was a law unto himself, and even Mr. Neville Chamberlain had ante- cedents as Radical as Mr. Lloyd George's own. But there could be no suspicion of any unsoundness in the Conservative creed of Sir Samuel Hoare. That he should be so prominent in the formation of the National Government showed that the current estimates of his political character were wrong. Only a bold man would have taken the lead for National Government at a time When a big Conservative victory at the polls would have been all but certain, and probably the example of Sir Samuel Hoare had as much to .do as any personal cause with the conversion of the Conservative Party to the National ideal. Sir Samuel Hoare went to the India Office, and identified himself with the larger and Federal projects of representative government in India. He now began to reveal new and unsuspected qualities. He developed a tremendous industry. His India Act demanded a working of complicated detail, which called for continuous study and hard work for years ; and in addition a subtlety and delicacy of negotiation and a knowledge of men. Sir Samuel Hoare proved equal both to the mental and the physical strain. In addition he had to guide the measure safely through Parliament against the relentless opposition of. its ablest debater. That Sir Samuel Hoare did it without a single slip made him acknowledged as a parliamentary force of the first magnitude. Mr. Churchill found his match not indeed at his own but at another and better game. Sir Samuel Hoare has elegance in speaking, but no rhetoric ; his success was due to patience, to complete mastery of his case, and to absolute control of temper under provocation. His reputation had risen more rapidly than that of any other Minister, and his appointment as Foreign Minister in succession to Sir John Simon satisfied only those who had failed to understand the quality of his success at the India Office. Sir John Simon, for all his great abilities, had failed from lack of imagination, of directness and courage on his approach to his problems. He was no exception to the general rule that no lawyer has ever made a successful Foreign Minister. Sir Samuel Hoare looked a tired man at the end of his work at the India Office, and it was his ill-fortune to find a first-rate crisis waiting for him in his new post. His first speech on foreign policy in the House of Commons was variously estimated ; some found it was a successful essay in political realism ; others found it elusive and unsubstantial. But already he had realised that the issue was not between Italy and any other country, but between the League and the methods that Italy was taking to satisfy ambitions for which on general grounds there might be much to be said ; and for that reason he made his offer of Leila, and acknowledged that Italy's purely welyaes recaoenNoemiley criticised had a claim to our sympathy. on both counts, but the subtle delicacy with which he stated our position it was impossible not to admire. Would he also have thecodurtahgee it)orinp give of Nlaleaedollienethth_ee defence of the League and responsibility ? To that his speech at Geneva supplied a completely satisfactory answer, and it is one of the most signal benefits of our diplomacy in recent years that it secured what was apparently the unreserved Subscription of France to our policy. But what most drew the admiration of the world to the speech was the philosophic breadth with which w hichalise acotirinceeiveendnutt; friend problem of responsibility. of the League to recognise its weakness, that it has become the mere interpreter of existing law, and to indicate as the condition of its future usefulness that it must cease to be a means for merely prOtecting the Haves but must also have an appeal to the HaVe Nots.
Sir Samuel Hoare has deserved to succeed ; and while failure will not affect the soundness of his diagnosis or the admiration for his courage, success would • at once place him in the front rank of our Foreign Ministers. But whatever the final issue in Abyssinia, he has already achieved a signal significance in our domestic politics. If we had to choose one name as an example of the revolution that has gone onWithinthe Conservative party, and of the power of the Conservative party mind to subdue the policy to changing eircum- afteacntieoens Sapnidriteeannddittioenaadeoip, adopt policy welfare, probably the best name of all would be that of Sir Samuel Hoare.
P. Q. R,
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