Victoria to Vimy The First World War Collections at the University of Victoria Libraries

Page 46_verso_a


Creator:
Westman, Florence M.
Description:
2nd image of Page 46_verso. Page contains a newsclipping with photograph describing an address to the Canada's House of Commons by Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Lloyd George Cabinet. Page also includes a clipping with headline "Russia's Women Make Gallant Fighters."
Subjects:
World War, 1914-1918; Westman, Florence M.
Date:
1917
Collection:
Florence M. Westman collection
Location(s):
Ontario--Ottawa
Transcript:
[start clipping] RT. HON. A.J. BALFOUR'S MESSAGE TO CANADA 1 photograph Rt. Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, expressing Britain's thanks to Canada in his first public speech after arriving in Toronto from Niagara Falls. Fifteen thousand crowded Queen's Park to hear him from a stand before the Ontario Parliament Buildings. [end clipping] MR. BALFOUR'S SPEECH SIMPLICITY ITSELF --- Pictures of the Foreign Secretary Make Him Look Old, But His Face is Ruddy With the Color of Comparative Youth. --- Written Specially for The Evening Journal by Newton Kendall. The House of Commons was all decorated up and crowded with fluttering humanity yesterday afternoon, when Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the Lloyd George Cabinet, dropped in to deliver an address. People arrived in croews and fought to get into the chamber. They expected to witness a mighty formal occasion, with a tall, severe individual, redolent of kings and courts and awesome assemblies, who would be stiff and unbending, very imposing and very severe, but yet would deliver an oration of sounding periods and glittering (?)erorations. "He's A Jolly Good Fellow!" If there were some who, conceiving this picture, came to scoff at it, the proceedings of the afternoon must have confounded them. For when a tall, round-shouldered individual comes into an assembly wearing the broad, good-natured smile with which Mr. Balfour greeted the House and all the galleries on his first appearance yesterday, there is only one thing to do. That is to sing, "He's a Jolly Good Fellow," which the crowd did with a will, and to forget all about the Balfour of dignities, solemnities and momentous affairs in appreciation of the simple unaffectedness of the man. THE FEATURE OF MR. BALFOUR'S VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS WAS THE COMPLETE ABSENCE OF POSE WHICH CHARACTERIZED HIM. He displayed no mannerisms. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself and to desire to make things pleasant for everybody. He was frankly delighted with the warmth of the greeting he received, and it was not his fault if everybody who cheered him did not receive a personal acknowledgement in the form of that soul-reflecting smile of his or a wave of hand or hat. As Though in Conversation. Mr. Balfour's address to the House of Commons was unique. His stle of speaking is, or was yesterday, simplicity itself. It was as if he were conversing quietly with each one of the audience. He speaks to convince by argument rather than by rhetoric; to instruct, not to electrify. This is not the conventional style in Canada, where we are used to watching hockey matches and have little patience with cricket. And yet, in any form of delivery, what Mr. Balfour has to say is worth hearing. It was so yesterday. For the time, the occasion, (illegible) and the circumstances, he said exactly the things which seemed to come fittingly from a visiting Old Country (illegible)man. Democracy. For instance, he spoke of democracy as a hard form of government because it was founded upon differences of opinion, the party political system. Yet democracy was the only form that would satisfy the highly civilized Western races. Temporary disagreements, he said, were healthy signs of vigorous life. "Whatever difficulties arise," he urged, "do not lose your faith." This seemed a fitting thing to say to a Parliament somewhat strikingly divided over the conscription issue. Again, he said the German expectation that the British Empire would not stand as a unit when war came was understandable, since the Mother Country was unable to raise a corporal's guard of men or a shilling in taxation in the "great self-governing Dominions." Hands At Coat Lapels. Most of the time when he is speaking, Mr. Balfour stands erect, with his hands clasped on the lapels of his coat. Now and then, a long arm is stretched out to right or to left, in quiet emphasis. His voice is musical and almost youthful in quality. He is in marked contrast with Viviani and resembles Borden in style of address rather than Laurier. The impression he creates is not on the audience but on the individual, and it is the individual's intellect rather than his imaginationn Mr. Balfour seeks to stimulate. The Ruddy Color of Youth. Mr. Balfour's published pictures do him an injustice. The make him look old. As a matter of fact he has the ruddy color of a young man, and his well-rounded features, so very sad in repose, flash a message of youthful good nature when he smiles. He seemed keenly interested in everything at the House of Commons yesterday, and when the proceedings were over he looked yearningly up to the galleries just as if he longed to get away up there to make friends with the people and have a talk with each one after everybody else had gone away. [end clipping] [start clipping] RUSSIA'S WOMEN MAKE GALLANT FIGHTERS 1 photograph This young Russian girl is a member of the Death Battalion of Women who have fought so desparately on the Eastern front. The photo was made at a review in Petrograd before Premier Kerensky. [end clipping]
People Depicted:
Balfour, Arthur J.