A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE Prime Minister is 70 on Saturday, and everyone, irrespective of party or of agreement or disagreement with his policy, will combine congratulations with deep sympathy for a man for whom the anniversary must inevit- ably be darkened by the weight of responsibility he has to carry. The physical element in politics is often forgotten, though a book might be written on the part played by tired men's decisions on great affairs or critical moments in histcry. Mr. Chamberlain's physical endurance was demonstrated spectacularly at the time of his flights to Germany last Sep- tember, but the engagements he fulfils on almost any day in any week are a notable testimony to a physique which he no doubt owes primarily to Nature, but secondarily to a studied self-discipline. Neither of his two immediate lieutenants, Sir John Simon and Sir Samuel Hoare, one of them four and the other eleven years younger, is his equal in stamina.
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