ABSTRACT
Austen Chamberlain and the rest of the family loyally attempted to conceal the gravity of the illness from the outside world, fearing that the political causes championed by Joe might disintegrate if the truth were known. But as more and more people began to grasp the fact that Joseph Chamberlain would never in fact return to the political stage, the difficulties of Austen’s position became apparent. Not surprisingly Austen Chamberlain did not like the idea and in the end Lord Ridley stayed on as chairman. Apart from Milner other tariff reformers canvassed the name of Lord Curzon, who having returned from the Indian viceroyalty was keen to re-establish a career for himself in domestic politics, while J. L. Garvin even thought of the newspaper proprietor, Lord Northcliffe, as a possible standard-bearer for the cause. For Garvin, however, the change in policy was ‘simply inevitable’ and Chamberlain was doing himself much harm by the ‘fossilised rigidity of his attitude.
