THE NEW AMBASSADOR.

Evening Star, Issue 19796, 21 February 1928, Page 6

THE NEW AMBASSADOR.

The name of Sir William Tyrrell, who has been chosen to succeed Lord Crewe as Ambassador to France, will bo 1 amiliar to readers of two of the best books of biography that have been written since the war. They are tho ‘ Life and Letters of Walter H. Page,’ who was American Ambassador to London, and Viscount Grey’s ‘Twenty-live Years.’ Viscount Grey writes; “ On© other name must be specially mentioned—that of Sir William Tyrrell, who was for many years my chief private secretary. Tho public has little, or no means of knowing how much it owes in public service to special gifts or qualities in individual Civil servants in high positions in Departments of State, la each case, where such qualities exist, a man renders service peculiarly his own, besides taking an able part in the conduct of business in the department. Tyrrell’s power of understanding the point of view of foreigners lias been of tho greatest value in making the British position both more intelligible and more acceptable to them. For nothing so predisposes men to understand as making them feel that they are understood. I had occasion, in office, to know the groat value of Tyrrell’s public service; but the thing that 1 prize is our friendship that began in the Foreign Office and has continued uninterrupted and intimate after official ties ceased.” The American Ambassador, Mr Page, was too shrewd a man not to discern early the abilities of tills most accomplished and engaging public servant. He writes before the war of Sir William Tyrrell; “He’s a good follow, a thoroughly good lellow, and he’s an important man. He, ol course, has Sir Edward’s complete confidence, but he’s also a man on his own account. 1 havc come to reckon it worth while to get ideas that I want driven home into his head. It’s a good head and a good place to pub good ideas.” The compiler of the ‘ Life and Letters,’ Mr Hendrick, writes of Sir William: “He had a keen insight info the human aspects of all problems, but perhaps his most impressive physical trait, was a twinkling eye, as his most conspicuous mental quality was certainly a sense of humor. Constant association with Sir Edward Grey had given his mind a cast not dissimilar to that of Ids chief—a belief in ordinary decency in international affairs, an enthusiasm for the better ordering of the world, a sincere admiration for the United States, and a desire to, maintain British-American friendship.” Colonel House writes of an interview which the attractive secretary had with President Wilson when_ British oil rights in Mexico were making a complication for America; “Sir William said that if foreign diplomats could have heard our conversation they would have fallen in a faint ; it was so frankly indiscreet and undiplomatic The colonel adds: “1 did not tell him so, but I had it in the back of my mind that whore people wanted to do right and bad the power to carry out their intentions there was no need to clonk their thoughts in diplomatic language.” The Ambassadorship to Paris is, one of the most delicate as it is also one of the most important posts in the British diplomatic service. Sir William Tyrrell will be helped in filling it by his “ power of understanding tho point of view of foreigners,” and not least by his sense of humor.