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Show Diplomatic Hands Across the Sea London and' Washington By Sydney Brooks LONDON; Feb. 10. TT IS quite on the cards that Sit Cecil Spring-Rice may prove the last of the professional diplomatists tc represent Great Britain at "Washington. "Washing-ton. The choice of Lord Reading at -' his successor marks. I hope and be- lieve. the beginning of a happier era in hich the type of man we send to the United Slates will be the type of man the United States for two generations genera-tions and more has heen In the habit of sending to us. And what an admirable type that is: Adams. Phelps, Lowell, Bayard, Hay. Choate. Whitelaw Reid and "Walter "Wal-ter Page what other embassy in the world can show so brilliant a line of occupants? Even' one of them was distinguished as a lawyer, citizen or litterateur before he became eminent as a diplomatist. Every one of them had interests and affiliations that stretched far beyond the humdrum official routine. Every one of them warmed both hands at the cheerful fire of English existence with a palpable relish. Every one of them was a great social success, and a success not less pronounced in his purely business and bargaining hours. Things indeed have come to such a pass that an American ambassador in London who was content to be merely an ambassador, who could not and would not speak, who loathed public occasions and shunned a platform, and who screened himself behind the ramparts of officialdom, would be reckoned reck-oned not only a freak of nature, but a disappointment and a failure. But of each and all in the series of charming, contented representative men who have presided over the American embassy em-bassy in London one can say that they stood out before the British public bs the embodiment of what was best ;n American life. . The Engaging Mr. Bryce To a quite extraordinary degree they have made themselves at home In all the many circles of British society: so-ciety: they have moved freely about the kingdom, accepting the presidency of various institutions, delivering addresses, ad-dresses, unveiling monuments, distributing dis-tributing prizes at schools and colleges col-leges becoming, in short, a popular part of the public life of the country to which they are accredited; they have stood out completely from their other colleagues cf the diplomatic corps; they have been national guests rather than official figureheads; and they have been eminently skilled In interpreting their own land to the British people. The debt that Anglo-American Anglo-American relations owe to the American Ameri-can ambassadors in London during the last thirty or forty years is literally inestimable. ITow many British representatives at Washington have been men of this engaging stamp? I can only think of one Mr. Bryce. Ke had. of course, when he went to Washington the supreme su-preme advantage of being not merely known to Americans, but better known and more highly thought of than any other Briton. For the last quarter of a century' at best no one in Great Britain, perhaps no one In Europe, Eu-rope, had had a tithe of Mr. Bryce'a influence on American thought. His two volumes on "The American Commonwealth" Com-monwealth" had been accepted by Americans themselves as the broadest, broad-est, fairest and most revealing study of their national life and Government. An enormous literature has accumulated accumu-lated in the last three decades upon almost every feature of American life and Institutions, but nothing has been written that can even begin to compete com-pete with the easy supremacy of those two masterly volumes. Mr. Bryce, therefore, found a national na-tional welcome awaiting him when he reached "Washington in 1307. But he never for one moment rested on the laurels of his reputation. On the contrary, con-trary, he was the busiest ambassador m or any other country ever sent to ! , N ' V, v. ' !- I , , V ? , ' 1 k o" " - - l 5 t i 1 At H I . . U Lau KEaDlng The "First Lady of Britain in the U. S. A." the United States. He partook freely in the public life of the nation. He made a point of seeing all he could of the country and its people. lie declined to confine himself to the embassy em-bassy on Connecticut avenue and his summer home in Massachusetts. He made himself an intimate figure in the world of American letters and in the still larger world of public endeavor. He delivered addresses at meetings, congresses and universities, and he never sought to conceal his passionate interest in all that touched on American Ameri-can life. The result of all this was that for the first time the British ambassador was something more than a name to the mass of the people. He occupied at last a distinctive position not only in "Washington, but throughout the country and ' in the opinions and instincts in-stincts of the "man in the cars." He was marked out from all the other ambassadors in a degree that corresponded corre-sponded with the special relationship that obtains between the two main branches of the English-speaking peoples. peo-ples. The Tet of Sir Cecil Thoroughly acclimated to the peculiar pecu-liar social atmosphere of "Washington and of America, knowing by Instinct and experience what to discount, how to make allowances, what to Ignore, how to accommodate himself, a man of the widest democratic sj'mpathies and Insatiable energy, able to take Americans in the broad human way they like, and thoroughly and obviously obvi-ously enjoying every minute of his stay among them, Mr. Bryce succeeded suc-ceeded in investing the British embassy em-bassy at Washington with a prestige it had never enjoyed before. "Great Britain," said Mr. Choate at the farewell fare-well dinner in 1913, "will send many ambassadors hither, but there is only one Bryce. Tou have made Americans Ameri-cans from the Atlantic to the Pacific love you." Xor was Mr. Eryce's ambassadorship ambassador-ship less productive on its purely political po-litical and business side. He helped to wipe the slate nearly, if not quite absolutely, clean of every contentious issue that still remained open between the two countries. He had, of course, his disappointments; he had to see much hopeful work go for nothing; but the half dozen or so treaties or agreements he was the meajis of con- 1 ( ,, t -; " V Pholopiripk by Clir.fdtntl SIR CECIL SPRING-KICK KctJring ambaador from London to Ta:hington (O 1 F. 5. Above LORD READING New ambassador from Creal Britain Brit-ain to tbe I'nited States eluding some of them dealing -with and disposing of question that one had almost despaired of ever seeing settled constituted a record that wan, and will ov.g remain, unique in the diplomatic annals of America. That .Sir Cecil Spring-Rice ma.ured up to tho Bryce itarniard it would 1.3 absurd to pretend. None tho les, he leaves behind him some very real claims on the gratitude and respect of the American people. I suppose very fw British ambassadors have ever had to car such a burden of problems and anxieties as fell on Sir Cecil's shoulders during the first thirty months of the war. AH the normal difficulties of his pent wore multiplied Indefinitely. To be the accredited rep. resentative of a nation at war to a nation at peace; to observe all the obligations and proprieties lniponed by the of!!rial neutrality of the American Ameri-can Government; to hnndlo the prodigious pro-digious number of intricate and extremely ex-tremely technical questions that kept on comincr up between Washington and London, and to avoid the pitfalls prepared for him by German agents and sympathizers all this was oh severe se-vere a test as one could readily Im- U Ibe British Embassy in Washington H.m & EwinC a.elne of the British ambassador's fitness fit-ness for his office. There cannot be much question as 10 how Sir Cecil bore the test. In a situation that fairly bristled with opportunities op-portunities for making mistakes he never made one. During the night-' maro of American neutrality, it would have been the simplest thing in the world for nn ambassador with a turn for loquacity or a habit of going off at half-cock to have spoken, to have acted in a way that would have .larred on the sentiment of the whole American people. Thousands of hostile observers, one may be vfrv sure, were watching and praying for him to take a false step. Thoy were utterly disappointed. dis-appointed. Pir Cecil took no fnl Ptep. Wi'h genuine skill and dignity and good sense he went about his huM;i" - j- and It was often very deii-cm deii-cm te and very contentious business In a wav that lefi behind not tho smaiy.-t trace of resrr.tmont. Contrast his conduct with that cf Count Bernstoi ff (hiring tho.? horrible thirty months whn A m erica was making up her mind. Sir Cecil scrupulously kept inside the limits of his ofi'.clal position. Ho never tried to bulldoze the Adrnir is rat ion or to lugcle with popular opin ion. II declined de-clined to turn the British embassy into a wire pulling press agency. He showed his respect for th" American Government and Ids sympathetic understanding un-derstanding of the Amciican peopi in nothing mote clearly than in his emphatic em-phatic refusal to imitate the activities of 1.1s Gorman col!ea;rue. Ife quietly allowed the facts to speak for them-slve. them-slve. He made no hH whatever for American favor on behalf either cf himself or his country. German vs. Briton lie never sought to hobble the American Ameri-can press, to create a pro-British paj ty. either In or out of Congress;, or to tell tho American people from day to day what they ought to think.- He never presented any trumped-up case to the cltk'ens of the T'nited States and dinned it into their ears by newspapers in his pay. He never transgressed In a single particular against the code of diplomatic etiquette. Ho behaved throughout a a guest of the nation, mindful of h!s privileges, but mindful also of what was owing to hid hosts. In short, ho conducted himself In tho way ono would expect from a gentleman gentle-man ind a Brltts'i ambassador. It used often to irritate me when I heard Americans cracking up Count BernstorrTs cleverness and energy and comparing it with Sir Cecil Spring-Bice's Spring-Bice's studied moderation and quietude. qui-etude. The German ambassador seemed to have the field all to himself. Of the British ambassador just as little as he could possibly contrive was either seen or heard. Superficial observers ob-servers poked fun at Sir Cecil as being overmatched, outpointed and out of (lie running. But I never doubted that the more serious and thoughtful oietnentn ef the American public approved ap-proved the contra-st between his reticence reti-cence and Count Bernstorff's funny volubility, between Sir Cecil's unvarying unvary-ing dignity and tho German ambassador's ambassa-dor's mountebank tricks, between all that the British representative might have done and did not do and all the Teutonio representative should not have done and did do. Tailing for Retribution Thre were very few transgressions against the spirit and the letter of international relations that the Am-b.issador,s Am-b.issador,s of the Central Bowers during dur-ing the first two and a half years of the war did not commit. With their open contempt for American civilization civiliza-tion and their faith In the infinite gullibity of the American people, they treated the United States as a pack of children to be amused with prattle, or as a pack of foo's to be hoodwinked by any riausible lie. They instigated, subsidized and captained one conspiracy conspir-acy after another against American industries, against the American State Department, against the Ajnerlcan Congress, even against tho American President. They abused every privilege privi-lege that their official patronage gave them, and they did so in a spirit of cynical and unabashed disdain for the Government of the nation to which they were accredited. Forgery, arson, insult upon insult, the fomenting of strikes, the corruption corrup-tion of opinion. Interference with the domestic politics of tho American people, peo-ple, terrorism through tho press and through Wall street, the circulation of falsehoods, the betrayal of olllclaj confidence con-fidence to all theso dirty devices the German and Austrian Ambassadors Mooped again and again. Personally I did not object In the least. I was often In the United States In 1015. 1916 and 1!1". and I felt that if th American people could stand it I certainly could. And I could stand It with all the more equanimity, as I knew perfectly well wdnere It would all end. Sir Cecil Spring-Rice did the right thing in looking on unmoved and in waiting'patiently'' for the Inevitable fiasco and retribution. He was quite content, like every other Briton in the United States, to let time and the American people pass their own unaided un-aided verdict on Count BernstorfTs tactics. Judged by the touchstone of results. Sir Cecil's diplomacy was Infinitely superior to that of his adversaries. By acting throughout as a man 01 honor and a friend of the American nation, by eschewing all flashy pyrotechnics pyro-technics and attending strictly to the routine of his office, he accomplished a thousand times more for the Allied cause than Count Bernstorff and his tools could accomplish for any cause they desired to recommend to the good will of the United States. The reason was very simple. Sir Cecil knew America, Amer-ica, understood it, liked it. Count Bernstorff treated it as a kindergarten he could cow or cajole as he pleased. Big Anglo-Americans It would therefore be impossible for any one who knows the facts to subscribe to the opinion that Sir Cecil Spring-Rice was a failure as British ambassador. In the negative but very vital ways I have touched upon I believe be-lieve him to have been a great success; and there were certainly many times when every Englishman in the United States had cause to give thanks that the British embassy was in the hands of a thoroughly trained diplomatist. None the less his resignation. Lord Reading's appointment, the vast and happy change that has come over Anglo-American relations and the certainty cer-tainty that those relations will be the decisive factor in world politics for muny years to come, make it, in my judgment, extremely desirable that the British embassy at Washington should be held not by a diplomatist, however eminent, but by a big Anglo-American of the Bryce. Choate or John Hay type. Times have changed since Sir Stratford Strat-ford Canning described the Washington Washing-ton embassy as very pleasant socially, but not requiring any gTeat talents politically. During the last two decades dec-ades the office of British representative at Washington has b"en in many ways one of the most exacting in the service. I know-, indeed, of 1:0 post which makes so insistent a demand on the level-headedness and adaptability of its occupants. I say occupants (in the pluraD because be-cause in Washington, less than in any other capital, fan the British Ambassador's Ambas-sador's wife be dissociated from her husband's failure or success. The prestige pres-tige of the British Embassy will often depend more on her social flexibility than on her husband's merits as a diplomatist. Very few English women, eo far as my observation goes, are happy or popular in the United States, or know how to take Americana, or can help being jarred, and, what is more, showing that .ey are jarred, by the thousand and one little differences differ-ences between English and American social standards and ways of doing things. Difficult Social Environment The wife of the British Ambassador has to accommodate herself to a social environment that is ail the more difficult diffi-cult to gauge because of its similarity in general outline and its dissimilarlty 1d detail to what she Is used to at home or In the capitals of Europe. It asks a very high degree of tact and self-control sometimes to accept persons per-sons and things as they come without comment or surprise, and to recognize that what would be counted as easy-golngness easy-golngness or curiosity In London may in Washington te merely a novel token of friendliness and Interest. A British Ambassador's wife in the American capital has always to bear in mlr.d that in matters of social usage tho English and the Americans, while aiming at the same mark and meaning essentially the Fame thing, often be-have be-have and express themselves in op. site senses. Not every British Ambassador at Washington has had a wife who po. sessed these qualities of perception-and perception-and more than one hostess at the em. hassy on Connecticut avenue hag passed her time, like Lady Barberiru in Henry James's Incomparable tale, i a state of hopeless alienation from and misunderstanding of her new surroundings. sur-roundings. When this Is the case th result is retroactively disastrous, be. cause Washington resembles nothing so much as a whispering gallery. i;s society is small, exceedingly intlmat, and enjoys a highly specialized cod of etiquette that is all Its own, and a mistake, especially a mistake on th part of the British Ambassador's trife, becomes public property at once. Most of the conditions thus impose on the wife of the British Ambassador an unusual degree of diplomatic warl. ness; the ambasador himself has to ba doubly on his guard. For one thing, lie finds the duties of hla office carrl.4 on in a glare of publicity that la E rope is not only unknown but unimaginable. un-imaginable. For another, there lsvv always a party in the United States anxious to score a point against Great Britain, and there are always to b votes to be won though not many, happily, in these days by an ana-Brit-ish campaign. The ambassador, therefore, has to practice in the sphere of politics tie same tactfulness and discrimination demanded de-manded from his wife in the sphera of society. He must be ever ready to make allowances: he must constantly con-stantly know that America la the ex-ception: ex-ception: he must know when to be discreetly deaf and dumb and blind. This is a kind of knowledge like the not less essential knowledge of ail the Intricacies of the American system of government that can hardly ever be gained by Instinct or picked up by a few months' study. It is the sort 0! knowledge that only a man with a pro. longed and intimate acquaintance with the United States is likely to possess, and that the official type of British diplomatist, pitchforked into Washington Washing-ton from one of the capitals of Europe, Eu-rope, is not only most certain to lack but to be unab'.e to acquire. Ambassador to the People If I had the choosing of the man to represent Great Britain in the United States, I should not waste a moment on inquiring whether "he had diplomatic diplo-matic ability and experience. & i I should very rigorously put sucIV, questions as these: Has he the instinct for taking Americans in the right way? (If he has that he has the one thing needful.) Does he know the" country and genuinely like It? (II ho ' has not a natural sympathy with ths American people and with the spirit of their social life, all gifts and ae. complis hments are as good as wasted.) Is he a man qualified to mingle In American public life and to expoual his own land to the American people? Would Americans he glad to have him among them without reference to til official position? Does he realize that the post of British Ambassador In Washington is now by far the most important off.ee In the whole diplomatic diplo-matic service, and that It can and should be made one of the most pow. erful of all instruments for drawing the two reop'.es together in mutual understanding and co-cperatlon? These axe the essentials, and a man who possesses them has a mightywcrSt to do fcr both countries and through them for the world. Lord F.eadir.g possesses them ail. I take his appointment appoint-ment to signify that henceforth the British embassy at Washington Is to bo taken clean out of the routine diplomatic diplo-matic service, that it is to te held only by men of broad distinction and established es-tablished reputation, and that our representative is to be as much an Ambassador to the American people ' as to ths American Government. |