Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, like Mr. Amery, Mr. Churchill and Lord
Eustace Percy, was among the former Con- servative Ministers crowded out of the present Cabinet to make room for the Liberal and National Labour members. Freedom from office conferred a certain independence of view, and though Sir Arthur never quite fulfilled his early promise he would pretty certainly have found himself on the Front Bench again. He had to his credit one achievement of which I have seen little mention. The League of Nations' Slavery Convention was the direct result of an initiative taken by Sir Arthur when he sat as delegate for New Zealand (for no other reason than that he was a friend of the then Prime Minister of that Dominion) in 1922. He was a great devotee of the game at which he met his death. The last time I saw him, some three weeks or so ago, he told me of some sound views he had been laying before the Foreign Secretary as they went round the links together:
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