Balfour a Leader for Half a Century
Balfour a Leader for Half a Century
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
The death of the Earl of Balfour puts an end to a career which for distinction and length of  service has few equals in modern English history.  At the Congress of 1878 in Berlin, he was  already well known as a promising young statesman.  Long after all the other participants in that  congress were dead, Balfour was Lord President of the Privy Council and playing tennis and golf  in his seventy-ninth year.  The one English statesman with whom his name was continuously  linked, and whose career covered the same period, was the late Earl of Oxford and Asquith.
Again and again Lord Balfour's political career seemed to have ended.  It started languidly  enough when, as a bored semi-invalid, he sat in the House of Commons, sucking a thermometer  and taking it out now and then to note his temperature.  He was called "Miss Nancy" Balfour in  those days.  Later he was to be called "Bloody" Balfour.  He showed a hardihood in weathering  political storms that brought H. G. Wells to write in 1926 of "that damned madonna lily; he  grows where he is planted."
Lord Balfour was a statesman almost in spite of himself.  By inclination he was the philosopher,  the esthete, the thinker, the cultured gentleman of leisure, spending his life among the books and  music he loved and knew so well.  When at the height of his career as Prime Minister he said:
"Give me my books, my golf clubs and my leisure, and I would ask for nothing more.  My ideal  in life is to read a lot, write a little, play plenty of golf and have nothing to worry about.  If I  could give up politics without disorganizing things or neglecting my duty, I would gladly do so."
At another time he said: "I would rather be known as having added something to our knowledge  of truth and nature than for anything else I can imagine."
The Philosopher in Politics
That love of philosophy threw an aureole about his life that set him apart both from the ordinary  statesmen and from the great mass of people with whom, as a politician, he should have been in  close contact.  The background of his life was philosophy, and out of it his political conduct and  theories emerged without ever losing contact.  His mind was that of a subtle, analytical thinker  meeting each new problem as a trained logician dealing with abstract ideas, not with people.  He  was any man's match in a debate, but many a lesser public figure could sway a crowd with  oratory where Lord Balfour would have little effect.
Although he was intimately connected with British politics for over half a century, he always  gave the impression of a man who had withdrawn within himself.  It was a case where  appearances were deceptive, but because of that attitude he never really caught the public fancy,  and there is no public figure in England of this century who aroused so little hatred or so little  love.  To most of the British people he was an abstraction, a paradox, an enigma that they could  not solve.  When they heard him speak it was only to feel more deeply puzzled.
His voice was smooth and he could be eloquent, but it was said of him that "you seldom know  what Balfour means." The very keenness of his mind led him into metaphysical subtleties.  He  saw, as his philosophic master Hegel did, the antithesis of every point that was being made.  His  sentences were involved and often trailed off ungrammatically without a closing period.
During his Premiership he made speech after speech on the tariff policy without ever committing  himself to anything definite. "As an intellectual feat it is unparalleled," one observer said at the  time, but it did not serve to make him popular.  He lacked the fire and conviction that made so  powerful an orator of Lloyd George.  Like Asquith, he was too much the aristocrat and too  undemocratic in his theories to appeal to the many.
It was in debate that his oratorical abilities were at their best.  His probing mind, his caustic wit,  his dialectical ingenuity, and with it all his polished, urbane temper and bearing, made him a  dreaded opponent in Parliamentary strife.
Sprang From Old Scottish Family
Arthur James Balfour was marked for politics from birth, for he was one of "the family." His  mother was Lady Blanche Cecil, the sister of the third Marquess of Salisbury, who played so  prominent a part in nineteenth century politics.  His father was James Maitland Balfour, the head  of the cadet branch of an old Scotch family, Balfour of Balfour, so called from the seat of the  family at Balfour Castle in Fife.  The future Earl was born July 25, 1848, the oldest of eight  children, five boys and three girls.  His father died when he was 9 years old and his mother when  he was 24.  The family lived at Whittingehame, in Haddingtonshire, Scotland.
After receiving his education at Eton, where he was "fag" to Lord Lansdowne, who was destined  to be Foreign Minister in his Cabinet, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, he entered Parliament  at the suggestion of his uncle, the Marquess of Salisbury, as representative of the family borough  of Hertford.
Already his languid air and apparent physical frailty had earned him the sort of raillery he was to  suffer from all his life.  In Cambridge they called him "Miss Nancy." When he first entered  Parliament he was "Miss Balfour." His opponents made much of the fact that he had been one of "The Souls," that exclusive group headed by the late Lord Curzon.  His health was so delicate  that it was a question whether he would not have to spend his Winters in Egypt and forego any  idea of a political career.
As an M.P. he was not a particular success.  His maiden speech was not delivered until his third  session in the House, and then it was on the characteristically abstruse topic of bimetalism.  His  real career began in 1878, when his uncle succeeded Lord Derby as Foreign Minister, and took  the young man with him to Berlin as his secretary at the notable congress over which Prince  Bismarck presided and which changed the map of Europe.  It was just after the conclusion of the  Russo-Turkish War, which had involved most of the Balkan States and Asia Minor.  Lord  Beaconsfield, the Prime Minister, headed the British delegation, with Lord Russell and Lord  Salisbury as plenipotentiaries, and it was under them that Balfour received his first important  lessons in diplomacy.
He returned to join in a half-hearted way the famous Fourth party, which was composed of four  men:  Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff, John Gorst and himself as the  least important.  Their chief political reason for existence was to form an opposition against  Gladstone, and they spent most of their time in Parliament baiting him.  In 1884 the party broke  up, and two years later the Marquess of Salisbury made his nephew Chief Secretary for Scotland.
As Chief Secretary for Ireland
A year later came his first important political job, and the most hectic position he held in his long  career.  In March, 1887, he became Chief Secretary for Ireland.
It was a critical period in imperial politics as regards Ireland.  Parnell was then leading the  violent forces that were agitating for Home Rule, and the debates in the House were bitter.   Balfour's appointment was received literally with guffaws of laughter.  The "silk-skinned  sybarite," "Pretty Fanny," "Clara" Balfour, was going to undertake a job at which the strongest  men had failed.
A little later he gave the order to shoot down rioters without hesitation, and the epithets were  changed to "Bloody Balfour" and "Bomba Balfour." Impervious alike to the personal danger he  ran and the attacks made upon him on the floor of the House, he went relentlessly on his way,  employing the coercive measures of the typical Conservative of that day.  He was an aristocrat  who did not believe in popular government, and he considered the Irish politically inferior to the  English.
"They have great gifts," he said at the time. "They have wit, imagination, eloquence, valor; in  many respects they are our superiors.  But in one respect they are our inferiors and no amount of  Gladstonian rhetoric can make them otherwise.  They are politically incapable of self- government."
When he returned to the House in 1891 it was to take up the leadership of the Unionist or  Conservative party and to be First Lord of the Treasury.  His party did not remain in power long,  and Balfour found himself leader of the Opposition.  In 1895 the Unionists again had a majority,  and from then until 1902 Balfour led them.  In 1898, when Lord Salisbury was ill, he took over  the work of his uncle as Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and when his uncle resigned in  1902 while Prime Minister, Balfour succeeded him in that position.
Issues of His Premiership
His Premiership is generally not considered a success.  The one great accomplishment during his  tenure of office was the negotiating of the alliance with Russia, Japan and France, the so-called "iron ring" around Germany, which she tried to break in the World War.  Balfour's part in the  negotiations was probably not as great as that of Delcasse in France, but it is generally believed  to have been important.
His government lasted three years, and much of the last half of that time was spent in trying to  avoid a break on the government's tariff policy.  Balfour's Colonial Secretary was Joseph  Chamberlain, who urged a policy of protection.  Balfour had always been a free-trade advocate,  and he was faced with the necessity of dodging the tariff issue or repudiating Chamberlain.  He  chose the former policy and for fully a year his opponents were unable to get a definite  expression of opinion out of him on tariff policy.
The supporters of Chamberlain within the Unionist party and all the imperialistic "die-hards" finally formed an opposition that put the Liberals in power.  Their slogan was "B. M. G.," meaning "Balfour must go." At the next general election the Unionist party was overwhelmingly  defeated, and Balfour himself was hopelessly beaten in North-East Manchester, a seat which he  had held for twenty years.
He was subsequently elected for the City of London on the resignation of Sir Edward Clarke and  regained his leadership of the Conservative forces; but his star remained in eclipse.  The old  slogan, "B. M. G.," was still in force, and in 1911 he renounced the leadership of his party.  He  gave as reasons his advanced age and the increasing need of leisure, not dreaming of the part he  was still to play in his country's history.
Sought American Support in War
More than any other man in England, with the notable exception of Lord Roberts, he had  advocated preparation for an inevitable world conflict.  Back in 1903, while he was still Premier,  he created the Commission of Imperial Defense, under which pre-war mobilization was carried  out and plans made on the declaration of war to send expeditionary forces to France.  He early  saw the necessity of gaining American support for the Allies.  He became First Lord of the  Admiralty in the Coalition Cabinet of 1915, and Foreign Secretary in 1916.  In April, 1917, he  came to the United States as head of the British High Commission, just after this country had  declared war.
While the situation at the time gave added vigor to his advocacy of friendship between the two  countries, Balfour could claim with justice that he had always believed in the necessity of Anglo- American cooperation.  As far back as 1895 he had said: "The time will come, must come, when  some one, some statesman of authority more fortunate even than President Monroe, will lay  down the doctrine that between English-speaking peoples war is impossible."
After the war, Balfour was one of the British delegates to the peace conference, and a firm  supporter of the League of Nations, which was soon formed.  He played a secondary role to  Lloyd George, and his name was prominently connected only with the negotiations by which  Shantung was ceded to Japan.  The Chinese have always held him responsible for that part of the  treaty.  In the post-bellum deliberations at San Remo, Hythe, Brussels, San Sebastian, Rome,  London, Geneva and other places, Balfour played an important part, although not a very  conspicuous one.
In October, 1921, he made a second notable visit to America as head of the British delegation to  the Washington Arms Conference.  He worked hard to cooperate with the other delegations, and  accepted in principle Secretary Hughes's proposal for curtailing naval forces.  His proposal to  abolish submarines, however, was opposed by France and Italy.
When he returned to England he was offered a peerage for the third or fourth time, and again  declined.  But soon afterward he was made Knight of the Garter, and in March, 1922, entered the  House of Lords with the title of Earl of Balfour and Viscount Traprain of Whittingehame.
Give Impetus to Zionist Plan
In 1922 Lord Balfour formulated a plan for the payment of the French war debt to England,  which was accepted in principle three years later, by which the British Government would  collect money to enable it to pay the war debt to the United States.  He was President of the  Commission on Trade and Industries of the League of Nations, and a member of the  International Chamber of Commerce.  He was the strongest and most influential advocate of  Zionism which that movement had.
His interest in Zionism started in 1917 when he made a much-discussed speech which came to be  known as the Balfour declaration, advocating a national home for Jews in Palestine.  His political  enemies said he made the declaration for its effect on America and her participation in the war.   Whether that was true or not, his interest developed and his sincerity after the war was never  questioned.
The Balfour declaration soon became the recognized standard of Zionist ideals for Palestine, and  it likewise was the basis of the organization of the Jewish Agency, composed of Zionists and  non-Zionists, who met at Zurich, Switzerland, in the Summer of 1929 to form a cooperative body  to advance the Jewish homeland ideal.  The twelfth anniversary of his speech was celebrated  nationally by Zionists on Nov. 4, 1929.
In 1925 Lord Balfour visited Jerusalem to open the Hebrew University there.  His attitude had  aroused the ire of nationalist Arabs, and his trip to Palestine ended by his being spirited out of  Damascus after a furious outburst on the part of an Arabian mob.
In the same year he succeeded the late Lord Curzon as President of the Privy Council, under  Prime Minister Baldwin.  A year later came still another important post.  When the Inter- Imperial Commission of the Imperial Conference in London was formed to reorganize the  British Empire, he was appointed chairman.  The resolution drafted by the commission in  November, 1926, by which the Dominions of the empire were placed on a status of equality was  signed by Balfour.
In 1927 he acted temporarily as Secretary of State for the Dominions, was Deputy Prime  Minister while Mr. Baldwin made his visit to Canada, and fought hard, in London, to avert the  failure of the Geneva Naval Conference.
The famous statesman received, on his eightieth birthday, July 26, 1928, honors such as are  accorded to few men.  Party divisions and personal differences were put aside and the nation  acclaimed him as one of its favorite sons.
The new building of the British Academy, of which he was president, was dedicated on the  preceding day at a function, attended by Lord Balfour, where the Prince of Wales paid the  principal tribute to him.  On the following day Lord Balfour received an expensive automobile as  the gift of the members of Parliament.  A sum that remained from the subscriptions also was set  aside "as a reservoir whence you can draw the fines you'll undoubtedly have to pay."
The cloud of ill health that soon was to force him to lessen his public activities had begun to  settle over the venerable statesman several months before, when heart trouble had forced him to  cancel many engagements.  He suffered also from laryngitis, and, as 1929 approached, his  absences from the House of Lords became of longer duration.  In April of that year his complete  retirement was foreshadowed when it was learned that his famous town house was to be sold.
This residence at 4 Carlton Gardens is probably second in political fame only to 10 Downing  Street, official residence of the Prime Ministers of Great Britain.  Built in 1825 by Adrian Hope,  it was leased by Lord Palmerston, who lived there until he died.  It was purchased by Mr.  Balfour, from Hope's son, in 1871.  Among its contents were Lord Balfour's collection of  Chinese and Sevres porcelain, part of which also was catalogued for sale, and a series of  paintings executed for him by Burne-Jones.
His last years were devoted largely to the completion of his autobiography, dealing with the great  men and events with which he had been associated during his long life.
Balfour Never Married
The Earl of Balfour never married.  Various reasons have been given.  He was engaged in early  life to Miss Mary Lyttleton, who died before they could marry, and, according to one report, he  remained faithful to her memory.  Others have pointed to his attachment for his charming and  brilliant mother.  Still others assert that his emotional life was absorbed in his intellectual  pursuits.  But these are all guesses.  Very little of his private life was known to outsiders.
In early life he aroused considerable discussion with a book called "A Defense of Philosophic  Doubt," published in 1879, of which it was said that everybody talked about it and nobody read  it.  It was an attempt to lead mankind into the path of faith by showing the fallibility of human  reasoning.  However, Balfour was accused of agnosticism, and was called a skeptic until his next  book, "The Foundations of Belief," was published in 1895.  He wrote two other books on  philosophy, "Criticism of Beauty" in 1909, and "Theism and Humanism," in 1914.
He was a gifted musician, and was said to have played the piano with professional skill.  He once  wrote an essay on the music of Handel, his favorite, and was the founder and President of the  Handel Society.  He was the first prominent Britisher to take up golf, and even wrote a book on  the subject.  His title of Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews was a proud  possession.  At tennis he was no less skillful.
His interest in contemporary affairs was always keen.  He was the first public man in England to  ride in an airplane.  At that time some wit said of him:
"If they succeed in his lifetime in running a light railway to the moon, the first passenger in the  guard's van will be Earl Balfour."