Chamberlain Day

Parliament opened last week and the House of Commons ratified the Locarno Treaties by a vote of 375 to 13, thus setting a great seal of triumph upon the labors of two men named Chamberlain, one living and one dead--Austen Chamberlain, His Majesty's Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who negotiated the Locarno Treaties (TIME, Oct. 12 et seq., INTERNATIONAL), and Joseph Chamberlain, beloved and fearless Victorian champion of Empire, whose darling wish it was that his son Austen should grow up into a statesman whose diplomacy should transcend even the limits of the Empire.

The Debate in the Commons was preceded by an almost unanimous outburst of cheering, which greeted Austen Chamberlain as he entered the assembly and proceeded to submit the motion for ratification. In the crowded balcony, the U.S. and Belgian Ambassadors and the Councilor of the German Embassy were present; they followed the ensuing speeches with eager attention.

The Foreign Minister spoke: "I do not say that these documents when ratified will make war impossible, but I do say that they will render war infinitely more difficult. . . . It will be almost impossible for a signatory nation to make war without clearly putting itself in the wrong before the whole civilized world and bearing the odium of such wrongdoing. . . . I should like to say that the success of the Locarno conference was essentially due to the high character of the representatives of Germany and France. . . . 'The spirit of Locarno' epitomized and was animated by a sincere desire for peace and reconciliation on the part of all."

Certain objections to the Treaties were made by the Opposition, headed by former Premiers Ramsay Macdonald and David Lloyd George, although both prefaced his speech by an endorsement of the Treaties as a whole. Objections and answers.

Mr. Macdonald: Why were the Locarno Treaties consummated without consulting the Dominions? . . . I cannot conceive of so insular a system of conducting the imperial foreign policy as other than calamitous."

Mr. George: "The one thing which mars the triumph of the Treaties . . . is the failure to consult the Dominions."

Mr. Chamberlain: "It was the desire of His Majesty's Government to get into conference with the Governments of India and the Dominions. That was not found possible. I will make bold to say that it is totally impracticable to treat matters of this great consequence, covering so wide a range, by despatch or cable across thousands of miles of ocean. . . . The Dominions and India have been left free to take their own action. . . . The whole matter will be brought up at the next Empire Conference."

Mr. Macdonald: "Was it the idea of Locarno to detach Germany from any co-operation with Russia and set up a League bloc of states against Russia?"

Mr. Chamberlain: "No, Sir! It was not!"

Mr. Macdonald: "Why did the Conference undertake only the disarmament of the Rhineland? War is far likelier to break out on the Danube than on the Rhine."

Mr. Chamberlain: "Locarno was not the place and those assembled there were not competent alone to produce a scheme of world disarmament. . . . But we did nothing to hinder such a development . . . much to make it easier."

Mr. George: "I agree that such action was not possible at Locarno [cheers from the Government's adherents] . . . But the Balkans are the earthquake centre of Europe."

By way of benediction, Lloyd George terminated his remarks as follows: "Mr. Chamberlain has said that it is 'the Spirit of Locarno' which chiefly matters. If so, I am glad that it has been incarnated in the form of a treaty; for a disembodied spirit is not of much use in emergencies. . . . Many nations have sent flowers to Mr. Chamberlain as a tribute to his success at Locarno. I fear that Mr. Macdonald has put a good many Scotch thistles in his bouquet. For my own part, I should like to add a humble Welsh leek."

The Chamberlain angle of the scene in the Commons loomed large in the minds of those who remembered how "Fighting Joe" had burst into tears when William E. Gladstone congratulated him upon the maiden speech of his son Austen, M. P.

At Birmingham, political seat of the Chamberlains, it is conceivable that many an honest workingman cried, "Our Joe's looking down from on high this week! Proud ain't no name for it!"

Meanwhile the pleasing hypothesis that Austen's career is an extension and a broadening of Joseph's was widely dallied with. This much may be said: Joseph was essentially "self-made," "provincial," and rose from the style of a Birmingham screw manufacturer to be Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Gladstone's Cabinet by sheer force of personality. Austen spent his youth in purposeful travel, and became the friend of Bismarck, of Wilhelm II, of statesmen and diplomats in many lands with whom his brusque father could never have dealt.

Though the physical appearance and the meticulously exact dress of father and son is similar, it is significant that Joseph always wore a monocle and an orchid, while Austen goes only as far as the monocle. Diplomat Austen knows where to stop.

In Joe's younger son, the Right Honorable Arthur Neville Chamberlain, some critics have thought that they discerned the pure paternal flame, undamped by Austen's diplomatic poise, though Neville wears neither monocle nor orchid, but a mustache. Neville, a onetime Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Minister of Health in the Baldwin Cabinet, and an M. P. since 1918, has been described as "a man to die with, not for." Observers opine that Austen is likely to remain the more patent reincarnation of Joseph.

Other Business Before the Commons:

1) The voting down of a Labor Reservation to the Locarno Treaties, 332 to 130.

2) Refusal by the Government to modify its restrictions against aliens.