Lord Haldane
OUR nation has indeed cause to be thankful that men endowed with intellects of the greatest calibre vouchsafed to man do not disdain to put their powers at the public service in the sphere of politics. They " descend into the field " although they know that the dust there will be more than distasteful to their sensitive natures before they can grasp any palm, and even afterwards. It is rare that those who can see life with the philosopher's broad view are a prey to any vulgar ambition for place or power : that last infirmity of noble minds is as often the first of ignoble ones. It is more true to say that such men are generally moved by their sense of duty and desire to serve. So we believe that it was with Lord Haldane. He had, it is true, a love for the practical as developed by intelligent organization, but the theoretical was always the sphere in which he moved most happily. When, some years ago, he was threatened with blindness, mercifully averted, he could make to sympathizers the brave and nobly simple answer, " But the whole realm of thought will still be open to me."
Coming of hard-headed, energetic, Northern stock on both sides, Lord Haldane was brought up in surroundings of mental activity unhampered by any material straitness, though one feels sure that poverty would never have been allowed to hinder intellectual development, for the Scots set an example to the world in surmounting those difficulties. He followed a course of philosophy at Edinburgh and at Gottingen. It was very natural that in those days a young man should feel that German thought was to lead Europe. The bias that he then received towards the teaching of Hegel never left him. He clung to what was best in it, and could not, or would not, bear to see how the rulers and teachers of Germany gave to it the dangerous twist by which they could use it to support their unjustifiable aims at the domination of Europe and the world. For a few years none of this was evident on the surface, except in a few essays and addresses. He threw himself into strenuous work at the Bar in London, which engrossed him for the time. His principal leaders, then Sir Horace Davey and Sir John Rigby, soon recognized his powers, and he steadily rose to a strong position as an advocate in the Chancery Division and the Appeal Courts up to the Judicial Com- mittee of the Privy Council. After reaching the zenith of his career at the Bar and becoming occupied in political work, he appeared less in the Courts, though he would come forward in such a case as that of the Free Kirk, which interested him intensely. But he was combining both tasks when he was a young Member of Parliament, which he entered in 1885 as Liberal representative of Haddingtonshire. The Party found him a valuable and hard-working member, marked out for office, pre- sumably legal office, when the Liberals should come into power. Over the South African War he showed that he could put aside the ultra-Liberal sentiments which favoured the Boers, and he joined with Lord Rosebery and Sir Edward Grey as a Liberal Imperialist, who accepted a surgical operation as necessary for the future welfare of South Africa, British, Dutch and native. Mr. Chamberlain reunited the Liberals and disintegrated the Unionist Party by his Tariff 'Reform campaign, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman became Prime Minister. No appointment that he made has proved more clearly how his curious Scottish shrewdness amounted almost to genius than his choosing Mr. Haldane, not for the Wool- sack or as Attorney-General, but for the War Office. The country had just been through an unexpectedly long and trying war. The digestion of its lessons had gone little further than the creation of the Imperial General Staff by the Esher Committee, and the longest heads in Europe perceived the menace of the Great War. The soldiers at the War Office did not receive a Radical lawyer with open arms, but his personal triumph there was quick and complete. They could not but surrender, willingly or not, to his brain-power, but it was more than that. He seemed to persuade them that his schemes were their schemes, and his tact drew out of them their best, and they gave most willing co-operation to the great credit of all concerned. Hence the country saw the steady development of the General Staff and the creation, with little evident controversy, of the new framework of our land forces. The old Regular Army, the Militia and Volunteers were co-ordinated into forces that could be expanded indefinitely. Certain Volunteer Corps, notably of the Public Schools, found themselves converted into a great reserve and potential future source of officers. The Lords Lieutenant were awoken by this Radical lawyer and bidden to realize their-almost feudal duty of seriously providing from their counties the due contribu- tions towards, or preparation for, the Defence of the Realm. And in the centre of the framework was the Expeditionary Force. The perfection of the " B. E. F." down " to the last button," the arrangements for its mobilization and shipment were such that it will probably be regarded by military historians, particularly by the Germans (did not General Von Kluck call it intvergleich- itch?), as the most efficient force of its kind and size ever seen. This was the unforgettable piece of work which Lord Haldane left finished in 1912, when he became Lord Chancellor.
It would be grossly unfair to forget this work for a single moment when discussing his mission to Berlin in 1912. So much legend grew up around his journey that has been refuted by his colleagues and his own account, Before the War, published after the War, that we need not go into details of it to-day. It was to be a private and informal visit, though on behalf of the Cabinet. Lord Haldane was chosen very naturally as carrying weight enough and as the man most likely to get inside the German mind. The mission was unsuc- cessful as regards coming to any agreement on naval or military plans : indeed, it was never expected to have that result. The Germans asked us to discuss fixed formulae which would have been of little use, even if acceptable. To gauge public opinion would have been difficult enough if there had been no motive to deceive.
Of course there was a strong party in Germany that was friendly to us and desirous of peace, for the whole nation was not then demented. This party was thrust forward under his notice, just as Prince Lichnowsky was sent to St. James's, and it made a strong appeal to the man who had in his youth admired German thought so keenly. If he exaggerated its influence in its own country, that was a very human error. Lord Haldane was quite aware of the other party, led by Tirpitz and others. He knew that there was an explosive magazine there, but he knew that to give the alarm by loud public warnings would be to put a match to the magazine; It is difficult to believe now, with our later knowledge, that he was not in some degree deceived or that he did not give his colleagues too reassuring a report. Yet his work at the War Office stood : there was no relaxation upon any advice of his. It still makes us hot with shame to think of what was said here about him and that mission by people who could not plead ignorance and stupidity as full excuses, and by those whose stupidity did amount to a crime. Blind or malicious vituperation was hurled at him. The most conspicuous sharer in this injustice was that brilliant naval officer, Prince Louis of Batten- berg, to whom the country owed so much, not only for doing his v bore ,duty, but for his initiatie. Both men bo themselves with dignified reserve. If they were not angered, then what must they have thought of the blatant stupidity that passed in some quarters for patriot- ism ! He left office in 1915. We do not doubt that Mr. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey and others desired chival- rously to stand by him, but were over-persuaded by those, who could plausibly say that every member of the-Cabinet must have the full public confidence. The whole tale has no pleasant savour, and we do not care to dwell upon it.
Conceivably these events had some influence upon his leaning towards the Labour Party, but we do not think they had. His Radicalism had never been based upon the old Liberal Individualism, because he had that love of organization from above, and less belief than we ourselves have in the beneficent powers of free will. He wanted to organize the nation for its good. He had not lost his admiration for German efficiency under a kind of monarchical Socialism or scientific etatisme. He was humane enough to sympathize with what is hu- mane and ideal in the Labour Party. He therefore joined the Party and became again Lord Chancellor in 1924. What their Government owed to him for moderate advice, the fruit of his wisdom and experience, we do not know, but we suspect that the debt was very large. Of his legal work upon the Woolsack, in the House of Lords and the Judicial Committee, we leave the lawyers to speak. There will be tributes. enough to its effect upon Consti- tutional Law, the Law of Property, and in other spheres.
The country can show gratitude for his work in no better way than by resolving that the dust, the noise, the strife of democracy shall not in its ignorance, its impatience of merit beyond its ready understanding, drive out of political life the sensitive men of real wisdom and high intelligence. Sometimes, looking around the world, we see countries less well served than ours by really great men. It is to the credit. of this country that we have not yet made political life intolerable for them here, and may it be long before we cease to recognize thankfully their services to us.
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