Distinguished Ambassador for Washington

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 18

Distinguished Ambassador for Washington

SIR RONALD LINDSAY, newly appointed British j Ambassador to Washing- ; ton, is a big man. Not only is he big in stature', being more than 6ft tall, but his is a name that bulks large in the world of diplomacy. For Sir Ronald is conceded to be the most distinguished and consummate diplomat in the British Foreign Service today. That explains why, for the past year, he has been permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in London, and why in preceding years he was moved about from country to country, wherever the need for skilled diplomacy was greatest. The appointment of Sir Ronald came as a surprise to the general public both in Britain and the United States. In past years there has been a marked tendency on the part of both Governments to step outside the ranks of diplomacy in selecting their representatives at London and Washington. Lord Bryce, one of the greatest of of British Ambassadors, was an eminent historian: a man of great attainment in the field not of diplomacy, but of literature. Walter Page will be remembered not as a diplomat, but as an editor, and a matchless writer of letters. He, too, was a literary man. But Lindsay is neither a politician nor an author. He never wrote a book in his life. His sole career has been diplomacy. He is unknown to politics. His friends say that he does not care for public life, and he himself has declared that he does not know to which political parly he belongs. In the world of diplomacy, however, his is a name to conjure with. Five years ago he was at Constantinople, engaged ujton the most delicate diplomatic adventure of reeen’ years. These were the early years of Mustapha Kemal’s presidency. The relations between the Turks and the British had been embittered during the Great War, but subsequent events served still further to inflame them. There was the Greek invasion of Syria, which the Turks believed to bo supported hv British money. Then came the dramatic Chanak episode, which Canadians have cause to remember. The ill-will became manifest in the struggle over the boundary of Iraq and the possesion of Mosul. Sir Ronald moved slowly, but surely, through an entanglement of prejudice

Labour Selects Descendant of Robert the Bruce to Represent Britain in America . . . Sir Ronald Lindsay Has Served in Many Fascinating Posts . . . and ill-will, finally- achieving complete success, and winning the confidence not only of Kemal Pasha, but the Turkish people. In his long and brilliant career as a diplomat, he has seen service at Petrograd. Teheran, Paris, The Hague, Caico, Berlin, Constantinople, and Washington. Now he is to return to the United States. Sir Ronald is no stranger to Washington. He spent two years there at the height of the Roosevelt period, when Lord Bryce -was ambassador. He returned, again for two years, in the Wilson period,

when the League of Nations issue was in the forefront of American Politics. He has been married twice, both times to Americans. His first wife was Martha Cameron, daughter of exSenator J. Lt Cameron, of Pennsylvania. His present wife was Elizabeth Sherman Hoyt, daughter of Colgate Hoyt, of New York Citv. Diplomatic circles at Washington have been distinctly thrilled by the prospect of an American hostess at

the British Embassy. The present Lady Lindsay has innumerable friends in tho diplomatic and political life cf the republic, and will be of inestimable assistance to her husband in the difficult task which lies before him. The new ambassador is a Scot, a descendant of one of the oldest and most historic of the great houses of Scottish nobility—the house of Lindsay. The flesh and blood of the Lindsays, like those of the great houses of Douglas, Moray, Ross, and March, are the very foundation upon which Scotland was built; the warp and woof of a history of valour and chi’airy out of which a thousand romances have been spun. The Lindsays stalk sword in hand, through the pages of Sir Walter Scott; their nan” and fame live in the poetry of theta race. The new British Ambassador cs ries in his veins the blood of the great King Robert of Scotland, whose daughter married a Lindsay. The Lindsays of the fourteenth century were the leading warriors of theta country, and their exploits are chren icled by Froissart. Diplomacy and arms are instinct in their blood. It is recorded that the fifth Earl ol Crawford (the head of the house o' Lindsay) was Scottish Ambassador •’ the English Court in the latter par of the fifteenth century. The sixth earl was slain on Flodden Field. The tenth earl fought for Mary, Queen o' Scots, but a junior member of the family was one of the party of noble? who broke into Mary’s bedroom anc stabbed Rizzio. One of the many dagger-thrusts which ended t of the little Italian secretary was sped by a Lindsay hand. More-over, a UMsay carried Mary a prisoner to Loci leven Castle, whence later she caped. The sixteenth earl stood with Charles I. at E.dgehill, Newbury, am Marston Moor. The twentieth earl the Life Guards, under Marlborough n ' the wars with France. A Linask ; fought against the American colowe* i in the War of independence. Indeed, Sir Ronald springs from onof the greatest families of Britain, the records of a thousand years, Lindsays have given statesmen, Py late*, diplomats, scientists, and rioa* to their country. Sir Ronald s the fifth son of » twenty-sixth Earl of Crawford, n in his 53rd year, and began his t of office in Washington early J* New Year.