BALFOUR, EARL OF, ARTHUR

JAMES (1848) Brit. statesman and author; eldest son of James Maitland Balfour of Whit tinge hame, Hadding tons hire, and Lady Blanche Cecil, daughter tive member for Hertford (1874), and became private secretary (1878) to Lord Salisbury, then foreign minister; a member of the ‘Fourth Party’; president of Local Government Board (1885-6); secretary for Scotland, with seat in cabinet (1886-7); chief secretary for Ireland (1887-91); carried Crimes Act through Parliament and set up Congested District Boards; first lord of Treasury and leader of House of Commons (18911902). On retirement of Lord Salisbury (1902) he became prime minister; pa ed Education Act Irish Land Purchase Act, Licensing Act, Scottish Churches Act, Unemployed Act, and Aliens Act; instituted the Army Council and Imperial Defence Committee; cemented the Entente Cordiale with France. Hig undecided attitude towards Mr. Chamberlain’s tariff proposals contributed to the Urionist crisis and ultimate overwhelming defeat in 1906, after his resignation of office in Dec. 19C5; tut he soon regained prestige as most brilliant parliamentary dialectician of his time. Resigned Opposition leadership in Nov. 1911, being succeeded by Mr. Bonar Law. On outbreak of World War (1914) he was a foremost supporter of all nece ary war measures, and in 1915 joined Mr. Asquith’s Coalition government as first lord of the Admiralty. As foreign ‘secretary in Mr. Lloyd Gcorge’s ministry he wrote the famous letter to Sir Cecil Spring Rice, which covered the historic Allied dispatch to the U.S. government (Jan. 1917). After the U.S. entered the war he conducted succe fully a most important mi ion to that country. In 1918 he attended the monthly meetings of the Supreme War Council, and in the following year was head of the Brit. delegation at the Peace Conference, writing most of the principal dispatches to enemy povernmanis during its sitting. In October, 1919, Mr. Balfour resigned the foreign secretaryship, and pecame lord president of the Council, retaining contrary to usual custom, his seat in the House of Commons. He was the principal British commi ioner to che conference in the Limitation of Armaments, in Washington, 1921-2, and on his return to England was created Earl of Balfour and Viscount Trapraino of Whitting-Hame, in recognition of his services in that and other political capacities. He is a metaphysician of note, and has written A Defense of Philosophie Doubé (1879) and The Foundations of Belief (1895). Chancellor of Cambridge Univ. (1919). An accomplished musician, keen golfer and tennis player.