PRINCE LICHNOWSKY DEAD

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 129, 29 February 1928, Page 11

PRINCE LICHNOWSKY DEAD

FAMOUS GERMAN DIPLOMAT AGAINST WAR WITH BRITAIN Rugby, February 27. Memories of the outbreak of war are recalled by the news from Breslau of the death of Prince Lichnowsky, who was German Ambassador in London at that time. It is recalled how Prince Lichnowsky was personally unfavourable to war

The late Prince Lichnowsky, who in 1912 became German Ambassador in London in succession to the late Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, came of an old Catholic Silesian family. He was for manv years in the diplomatic service. He began his career as attache in London, and was afterwards secretary at Bucharest. He held his last diplomatic post before coming to London as Councillor of Embassy in Vienna, ■ whence he was recalled to a position in the political division of the Foreign Office. The Prince was a close friend of Prince Bulow, and had a high reputation for ability. When n London he took part in the negotiations for a convention with Great Britain regarding the Bagdad railway and various colonial questions, which was initialled on June 12, 1914. Prince Liclinowskv was convinced that for years the relations between Germany and Great Britain had been mismanaged and misunderstood by the Foreign Office in Berlin, and, in particular, he believed that Herr Bethman von HoUweg and his advisers had failed to appreciate the pacific attitude and intentions of Sir Edward Grey and the British Government during the crisis that ended in the Great War. He embodied his views in the pamphlet entitled “Meine Londoner Mission, which he circulated privately in nianuscript among his German friends. This document came into the hands of an opponent of the war, Captain von Beerfelde, who was the means of its being published without authorisation in 1918. The publication exercised a very prejudicial effect upon the German war spirit, and there were loud demands among the Conservatives and National Liberals for the prosecution of the author, while the Prussian Upper House, of which Prince Lichnowsky was a member, passed a resolution excluding him from that assembly. Prince Lichnowsky was 68 years of age at the time of his death.