Retirement for Two

High in the clock tower of the British Houses of Parliament, Big Ben pealed three changes. It was 3 :45 p. m., the hour when London businessmen lick their lips and wonder if the office boy will never come with the tea.

Earl Baldwin, thrice Prime Minister of Britain, weighed down with a crimson robe festooned with miniver, had to go thirsty. He was standing just outside the House of Lords fidgeting with a black cocked hat. waiting to be inducted. A thin stream of dignitaries trickled towards him--Sir Gerald Woods Wollaston, Garter Principal King of Arms; the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of England; the Earl of Ancaster, Lord Great Chamberlain; the Earl of Derby and the Marquess of Londonderry, two senior peers. They shuffled into position, marched up the aisle towards the woolsack whereon sat Viscount Hailsham, Lord Chancellor, speaker of the House of Lords. At each three steps they paused to bow. When at last they reached the woolsack, Earl Baldwin knelt, got up, moved to a reading desk where a clerk sonorously summoned him "to sit among the Lords of the realm." Earl Baldwin was clearly uncomfortable. He searched for non-existing pockets, scratched his brow, had to be reminded to sign the Lords' register, take the oath, kiss the Bible. In five minutes it was over. He was led to a seat on the front bench, rose three times to tip his hat to the Chancellor, then dashed out to change his clothes.

He returned in time to hear Laborite Lord Noel-Buxton flail the Government's Imperial policy--a policy which Earl Baldwin has been intermittently sponsoring since 1923 when he first became Prime Minister. Lord Noel-Buxton thundered that the Government was bungling its African relations, urged the Imperial Conference, meeting in London, to see to it that the peoples of the Empire were protected "regardless of race." Earl Baldwin said nothing.

At about the time when the former Prime Minister was doing his stopping and starting turn in the aisle of the House of Lords, 62-year-old Arthur Annis was found dead in his London office. He had been political agent for the Conservative Association of Bewdley, had managed Stanley Baldwin's election campaigns in that constituency for 28 years. Day prior. Arthur Annis had remarked to a friend: "When you lose your boss after 28 years you realize you're getting old."

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